


Dark Crystal discord drabbles

by animatedrose



Category: The Dark Crystal (1982), The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance (TV)
Genre: AU situations, AU where Aughra finds and raises an urRu-Skeksis pair, AU where Jen had loads of urling siblings in the Valley, AU where Var is saved in AoR, AU where Zok saves Freckles, AU where gelflings defeat skeks and skeks have to go feral in the wild to live, AU where skekMal raises Rian, AU where skekTek kept a few undrained slaves for himself, AU where skeksis have specific assistants, AU where the Darkening made Deet evil in Stone-in-the-Wood, AU where there are lots of urling and skekling making going on, Abandonment Issues, AoR skekLach, Banishment, Blood, Blood and Injury, Bullying, Dehydration, Drunkenness, F/F, F/M, Fainting, Fluff, Frustration, Grim Reaper - Freeform, HakTah is back, Hanahaki Disease, Henson Creature Shop challenge skeks, I blame the Circle of the Suns discord, Implied Murder, Lach takes over as Emperor, Lap dancing, Li did it first but clothed, Lola the Cat tiktok inspired bald skekling, M/M, Mal is a dick to Geth, Mal's skeklings are bullies, Moral Dilemmas, Multi, Na really likes Sa, NaNoWriMo drabbles, Non-Consensual Touching, Non-Violent Torture, Nudity, Other, Pip has seen some shit, Pity, Podling orgy, Powers of the Dark Crystal references, Rage, Sa and Zok are very protective of their naked baby Lo, Sa be big, Sa really hates Na, Sa will lap dance Ayuk though, Sa won't lap dance So, Self-Harm, Sharing Body Heat, Sith swaps pronouns a lot, Skeksis on Skeksis kindness, Skeksis x Gelfling romance, Suicidal Thoughts, Taro is a sweet boy, Tek has a bad time, Thra spawned skeklings, Threats of Violence, Unhealthy Obsession, Zer is a bit messed up, Zer is a dick to Tek, Zer knows he is too, Zok is good friend to Var, artificial Skeksis construct with a Gelfling soul, artificial skeksis, baby Jen is a brat, bathing rituals, blue flame Miko, bohrtog, corrupted!Deet, darkened!Deet, death by hanging, don't make urSu worry, don't screw with the science pals, evil!Deet, evil!Deet versus everyone, familial differences explanations, featherless skekling, finally gave the Creature Shop skeks titles even though Geth kinda had one, first hunt, fizzgig bites hurt, forced baths, forever RIP the Gruenaks, freeing spirits, future content of From The Blue Flames, gelfling host to an inky skeksis, genetic mutations, ghost Var doing a nude lap dance on So, ghost skeks are stuck watching the living, i go down with them all, i just really love the bohrtog okay, i'm so sorry Deet, inanimate object coming to life, interrupted draining, joke skeks becoming actual skeks, let me have my poly ships, lots of ocs here, love-hate friendships, magic stuff, needle usage, neither can urSu, reverse AU where Skeksis raised Jen, sibling relationships, skekJat tries really hard not to get emotional and fails, skekNa is too desperate for skekSa, skekSa and skekTek are besties, skekVar is a bully but skekSa is a bigger bully, skekZok has a Gelfling harem in the castle, skeklings, skeksis cuddle puddle, skeksis on skeksis violence, snow skeks, so many crack ship skeklings, some of these are related to my other fics like VotSatE, spoilers for the last episode of AoR, statue decapitation, teacher worship, the skeklings are from all skek pairings, urCue is very confused, urFlor has too many skekling kids, urFlor moves around a lot, urSu is a worried dad, urTao cannot comprehend the baby amount for urFlor, urlings, winter sucks and even the skeksis hate it, yes i made them canon like i did Cru and Eer
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-11
Updated: 2020-05-25
Packaged: 2021-01-27 10:22:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 51
Words: 20,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21390580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/animatedrose/pseuds/animatedrose
Summary: Just me trying to do NaNoWriMo (National Novel/November Writing Month) but with Dark Crystal drabbles. Most of these will be random. Most will include my many OCs. I include the Henson Creature Shop challenge skeks and the abandoned/retconned manga skeks as canon. All Lachs are valid and will be specified in notes as to which one is being used.So follow me on this dumb Skeksis and urRu adventure this month! And maybe beyond. We'll see.UPDATE: Yeah, we're going beyond now. This is now just a random drabble collection from my Discord writings. Some of these may get expanded into their own full stories later. Mostly Skeksis because...Skeksis are cooler.
Relationships: skekGeth/skekTaro/skekSith (friendship), skekHak/skekTah (OC), skekLach/skekOk/skekEkt (friendships), skekMal/urVa, skekNa/Podlings, skekNa/skekSa, skekNa/skekZok (hinted), skekSa/skekTek (friendship), skekSa/skekZok, skekSo/skekGra (implied), skekZok/Freckles, skekZok/skekOk (hinted), skekZok/skekVar (friendship), urSan/urFlor (OC)
Comments: 72
Kudos: 37





	1. From Within the Blizzard

**Author's Note:**

> This all happened because Discord ate this particular drabble and I wanted to share it but some couldn't see it. So thank Discord being nonfunctional for this.
> 
> Also, check out the Circle of the Suns discord. It's cool! We have no drama! Just babies and...stuff. And lots of crack ideas. lol
> 
> skekGeth is now my dumb little snow baby. I included an image of him at the bottom, for those needing a visual. He, skekTaro, and skekSith are all from the Henson Creature Shop show in the "Return of the Skeksis" episode. Geth is the artic wasteland one, Taro is the desert one, and Sith is the forest one. My brain now considers them hidden canon, like it does skekCru and skekEer from the manga. *hugs all the skeks*

Brea hadn't meant to get lost. She had just wanted to play in the snow. It was so stuffy in the palace and Seladon was too bossy and Tavra was never around and mother wouldn't let her talk to the Skeksis because she was "too young to hold a proper conversation". She was five trine old! She was old enough to talk just fine!

She hadn't known about the blizzard. That it would turn the whole world white. That she'd forget which way was home because she couldn't see it. Brea had never felt so cold in her life.

She hunkered in the snow, piles building up on her. Her dress was thin and she was too small to generate enough warmth to fight off the freezing conditions. It was when she lost most of the feeling in her fingers, toes, and ears that she realized something.

She was going to die out here, lost and alone, and nobody was going to know because nobody knew she was gone.

Her eyes watered, the tears freezing against her cheeks. "Mommy!" she sobbed, terribly afraid.

She couldn't hear the heavy crunch of snow over the howling wind, but she did see the snow sink beneath the weight of frost-covered furs. Her small head tipped back, far back, to witness the immense shape towering over her. At first she thought it must be some kind of monster, here to eat her. Then it bent almost in half and a beaked face came into view.

Short and blunt, mostly pink with a strange crest rising between its beady gray eyes. There were spikes along its jaw and cheeks. The creature was wrapped in heavy furs and feathers of various colors, different animal pelts all roughly stitched together in black cording. Atop their back, folded down but still visible, was a strange sort of sail, like the kind Brea would see on Sifan ships. Glimmering gold cloth stretched over a collapsible black bone frame, though the whipping wind threatened to unfurl it anyway.

In the creature's hand was a sturdy staff bearing a skull and perched on top of it, glowing brightly, was the most beautiful blue orb that Brea had ever seen. It looked to be made of glass yet she somehow knew it couldn't be. Its glow was almost entrancing in its beauty.

A Skeksis? She couldn't recall seeing one like this...but she had only seen two or three of them in her whole life. Why was a Skeksis Lord out here in this storm? Had they come to save her?

They muttered something in a language that Brea couldn't understand. She didn't protest when the staff was hooked to their belt and she was lifted. They felt warm, warmer than her. She snuggled close, only to be tugged away as cording and buttons and snaps were undone. That’s when she realized something.

This Skeksis didn’t have two arms. They had four. Two held her. The other two opened layer upon layer of furry robes and silky clothes.

Before Brea could even begin counting—just how many layers was this Skeksis wearing?—she found herself stucked into the warm darkness of the space within the opened robes. Then the noises returned, but backwards as the Skeksis closed up their coverings. A piece of Brea demanded panic, fear…but the rest relaxed, cradled in the warm darkness. Her eyes fluttered and she fell asleep.

Safe.

.o.o.o.o.

skekGeth the Orb Holder grumbled. Now he regretted never bothering much with the Gelfling language. He hadn’t seen one in trine. They usually didn’t come out into the blizzard-stricken frostlands beyond Har’ar. He even counted on that when he reluctantly agreed to spend the last two hundred trine here.

He might’ve counted this one as suicidal if it wasn’t so young. It was clearly lost, which meant someone would come looking for it, which could land him in hot water if he was seen. He could’ve left it to die…but skekTaro and skekSith had loved to tease him about how weak he was when faced with the prospect of something so young dying. So he scooped the tiny child up and tucked them away beneath fifteen layers of fur and heavy robe designed to force out the chill and insulate him.

They had to have come from Har’ar. They were obviously Vapran. He recognized their kind easily. If he had been a fool, he might’ve believed the child Grottan, but he knew the eyes were wrong. skekTaro would’ve made such a silly error. skekSith too, if he had been drinking.

skekGeth chased such thoughts away. There was no point in thinking of his fellow travelers. He had to get to Har’ar before the Vapran came looking for their missing childling.

He crunched through the snow, heavy boots defending his feet. He clutched his staff in gloved hands, everything lined in thick, soft fur from every animal hide he had managed to barter the Hunter out of. skekGeth was no hunter or trapper. He could track things but killing was not a strong point of his. He was big but he was rather weak.

But he had a powerful sense of natural direction. The childling had been facing the wrong direction. It had been going away from Har’ar rather than toward it, disoriented by the snow and wind. The Orb Holder suffered no such disorientation. He powered through the wind, beak down to let his frostbitten crest take the brunt of the arctic blasts.

By the time he reached Har’ar nearly an hour later, the blizzard had begun to die. Night had fallen and most of the lights were out. skekGeth bit his tongue before carefully heading up the steps. The All-Maudra’s palace was still lit up. The guards must be awake. One of them would come and find the child, surely.

He knocked on the huge doors anyway, once he deposited the sleepy child on the snowy steps. Then he spun and fled, ignoring the sudden cry of the childling. He was not supposed to be seen. His job was to wander endlessly through the frostlands until…something. Probably until the Orb was fully powered for…something. skekTek and the Emperor never did give him all the details and here he was, over two hundred trine later, wondering if it had all been a big joke to them.

.o.o.o.o.

His footprints were ignored by the guards when they discovered Brea outside, where she should not have been. They brought her in, warmed her, and alerted her mother. Brea was numb to the scolding until Mayrin hugged her, which prompted a hug and many tears from the child. She tried to explain about who saved her, but the words kept slipping and eventually dissolved into nothing.

Brea never did go play in the snow alone again. And after a few trine, she forgot about the fur-adorned Skeksis with the pretty orb…until she saw him again one night, days after the Gelfling rebellion had begun…


	2. Snow Skeksis

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> From the dumb VotSatE drabble where skekTah made a snowskek. Apparently he is now alive.

skekSnow couldn't begin to count how many snowfalls had given birth to him. One, three, ten? Not that he could really count, but he was trying, honest. Snowmen weren't exactly made to be smart.

Well, snow Skeksis.

This one felt...different. Master skekTah's hands felt warmer, closer. skekSnow couldn't puzzle out why. Eventually his maker left him, the rest of his kind coming to stare and occasionally straighten his stick arms and stick spines. These others, while like his maker, were not like his maker too. skekSnow did not feel the same adoration for them as he did his maker.

It was only once they all left that the snow being felt it. Warmth, uncaused by a living thing. A ray of violet light, beamed from somewhere beyond his rock-eyed scope of vision, pierced his chunky white body. It was warm but he did not melt.

Not in the usual sense. skekSnow knew what it felt like to melt. This was...different.

The cold snow solidified. Sticks and stones morphed into softer, more mobile things. skekSnow blinked...and then stood in awe because rocks couldn't blink. His beak should not move, nor his limbs. Yet they did. He stared at his hands--he had hands!--and marvelled at how white he was.

For some unknown reason beyond his comprehension, skekSnow was no longer a creature of snow and ice, wood and stone.

He was flesh and blood. Alive.


	3. It Begins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> skekFleur the Florist runs across a strange flower. The start of her hanahaki (flower spitting) illness.

skekFleur had no idea what that plant was or what it had done. The accursed thing blew up, practically! She scrambled away from it and its pretty red flower. Her lungs burned and her tongue felt sticky. She coughed and wheezed.

So much for bringing it back to the castle. It had looked so pretty, too. Sad day.

The Florist coughed, trying to hack up the lumps in her throat. The powder--maybe seeds or spores of some kind?--refused to clear. Every breath burned. She shuddered, sinking to the moss.

Fear hit her. skekMal had gone off to hunt while she was busy "flower picking" as he called it. He might not be back for hours! And here she was, struggling to breathe, vulnerable to any passing predator!

She was going to die out here, certainly.

"What are you doing down there?!"

Relief hit her like a stone wall. She tilted her beak back to see the Hunter leaping between the branches of the trees, coming toward her.

Perhaps there was no prey and he'd gotten bored. She doubted he'd tell her. "Had a bad run-in with a particularly explosive plant," she explained, coughing.

skekMal snarled, landing near her. "You would! Useless fool! I'm gone for ten minutes and you act like you're dying!"

skekFleur was used to this level of verbal abuse from the Hunter. What she didn't expect was for him to stomp over and pull her from the ground. She was about to thank him for the unexpected help...when he kept going, throwing her over one shoulder like a trophy kill.

"Wh-what are you doing? Put me down!" she squawked between heavy coughs.

"Taking you back. I'm not finding prey and you've already gotten into mischief," skekMal replied, stalking back toward the castle.

skekFleur might've protested more but the sudden position change left her coughing more heavily. She hoped it was enough to clear her throat of whatever that flower spewed at her...


	4. In Her Head

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> urFlor has no idea why he lost his eye. skekFleur wishes she never found that flower.

urFlor wasn't sure what was happening. He hadn't gotten any dirt in his eye recently from his gardening, yet he felt an unbelievable amount of pressure. His left eye watered, vision becoming blurry.

Was it something skekFleur had done?

The Gardener wasn't sure. His eye ached horribly. Then the pain got worse. He groaned, dropping his tools to bring a hand over his eye. Something wet greeted his fingers. A coppery scent hit his nostrils.

He couldn't see his palm anymore. He could see nothing out of that eye. It felt like it was being ripped out. urFlor curled along the ground, moaning. His garden and tools lay forgotten before him.

.o.o.o.o.

Thousands of miles away, the Florist wailed as she drew her talons away from what had once been her left eye. A vibrant red flower bloomed there, wet with fresh blood.

Now she could say the Scientist was right. It was in her head. Literally.


	5. Leashes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> skekTah finds his adopted skekling with the worst Skeksis possible.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A piece of my growing skekling hell. Enjoy.
> 
> Starring Legends manga Lach, not AoR Lach, because Tah had spooky history with Legends Lach. I'm still figuring out what his relationship with AoR Lach would be.
> 
> This is connected to another Dark Crystal story I have in the works called Mother Monster. Basically, skekTah gets saddled with a bunch of Thra-spawned skeklings because he's too caring for words. skekAva is his first, a throwback to Little Lives, if anyone remembers that fic still.

"What are you doing?"

"I found her wandering," skekLach said in his defense. "I had a spare leash."

"You have her on a leash!!"

skekTah stared in shock at the Collector. At the much larger Skeksis' feet, chirping and trying her best to flee, was skekAva. The baby Skeksis tugged and bit at the heavy line that was looped under her arms. Near her, skekLach's two hounds looked warily at the newest addition to their leashed pack.

"If wouldn't have her on a leash if you didn't lose her," skekLach pointed out. "If anything, I just saved her."

skekTah looked from the Collector's smug grin to the frustrated child. In all reality...that was a fantastic idea. Why hadn't he thought to leash her?

skekLach held out the leash. "You're lucky the Emperor didn't catch her free-roaming alone. Why, the things he would've said."

skekTah quickly took the leash, the child squeaking as she was tugged in his direction. "I appreciate that."

The Collector was content to be on his way. The Schemer fought off the shivers. This was just what he'd needed--skekLach getting a leg up on him about this situation.

This day couldn't possibly get worse.


	6. Liar Liar

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> skekFleur the Florist has enough of being ignored and called a liar...

skekFleur stared up at the eroded statue of the Emperor. She was alone in the courtyard. Of course she was alone. She was forgotten. A crazy outcast who claimed she was coughing up flowers. The nutter.

The night sky was clear. She couldn't bring herself to appreciate the stars. She was too buried in what had to be the hardest choice of her life.

Staring at the statue made her angry. It was weathered and worn but worse, it was coated in moss and thick vines. The whole courtyard had gone to ruin, forgotten and untended in her absence. Weeds had overtaken the flower gardens, choking out everything she had painstakingly grown.

All for the Emperor.

All for nothing.

She had tried to tell them. To explain. Nobody would listen. skekTek refused to take her claims seriously, even when she coughed petals in front of him. A bid for attention, he said. A lie. A joke. Drama to lure eyes to her.

Nobody listened. Not skekTek. Not the Emperor. Not even skekMal, who had been there when nobody else was around. Even he had abandoned her to the court's cackles.

A joke. That's all she was. A liar.

She bit down a scream but could not hold command over her talons. She lunged, swiping with unbridled fury. Vines fell away, moss was shaved, and the stone of their beloved Emperor was scored with marks too deep to have come from the dainty, quiet, needy Florist. skekFleur bit her tongue to hold back the scream but her talons kept working, carving away at the stone.

When she was done, her talons were cracked and broken. She was sure a few fangs had cracked too from how tightly she had clenched them. Her shoulders heaved with breath, exertion weighing on her bones.

Her mind was made up.

By morning, when the first of the Skeksis Lords roamed about before the morning meal, skekFleur would be gone. It would be further hours still before someone crossed the ruined courtyard. The statue would be unnoticed until someone found the stone head of the Emperor lying among the weeds, the word LIAR carved across its decapitated chest.

The Florist was long gone.


	7. Enjoy Your Court

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> skekLach finally knocks skekSo off of the throne, only to find himself defied by an unexpected court member...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This follows Legends manga-verse, so we have scary Lach here rather than blight AoR Lach, for context.

"I AM EMPEROR!!"

The court bowed their heads. It was really only a matter of time before the Collector made his move, his bid for the throne. Even skekSil couldn't stop it, though he had tried. Many had seen the silent struggle between the pair, especially after the Namopo Valley incident.

Though the Chamberlain was disliked, the Collector was hated.

And now he was Emperor.

The Emperor--no, skekSo, he was just skekSo now--cowered in all his frail, sickly, evil glory. skekLach, scepter in hand, had finally saw fit to muscle his way ahead enough to physically rip it from his claws. To take what, in the Collector's mind, belonged to him: the throne of the Skeksis Empire.

"Now, as my first decree as Emperor!" skekLach sneered, scepter swinging to face skekSo. It nearly struck his beak. "I hereby order you banished!"

skekSo croaked, eyes huge. He shrunk in on himself, staring helplessly at his court. Nobody moved a talon to aid him, not even the Chamberlain.

At least, nobody he was expecting to help him.

skekLach lunged first, claws sinking into a layer of ornate robe...and then he reared back, shrieking. The rest of the court backed up, eyes wide and beaks dropping open in shock. The new Emperor held his flesh hand close in his mechanical one, pain and shock striking him. Then his dark gaze rose to meet his attacker.

The smallest and most unlikely of the court, skekTah the Schemer, blocked his way. There was blood on his teeth from where he'd bitten the Collector. skekSo, finally realizing what was happening, sunk his claws into his only defense in the whole room.

"skekTah," skekLach wheezed. "Move!"

"No." skekTah shook his head. "If you're going to banish him, just let him go."

"Get out of my way!" skekLach bellowed, over twice skekTah's size and several more times his weight. "Unless you wish to join him!!"

skekTah ignored the gazes burning into him. skekVar's desperate head bobbing. skekSil's hissing. skekZok swiping a claw. Even skekTek taking a step forward, as if to plea in his defense. All were ignored. skekTah stared firmly at the new Emperor, aware that he was making the biggest mistake of his life.

He really wished the mariner, Hunter, and Conqueror were here. They'd never let this happen.

Worse? skekLach knew that and planned it this way.

skekTah frowned, setting his jaw. "Join him? I will. Enjoy your court, Collector."

skekLach's beak dropped open in shock. He hadn’t actually been serious, yet he knew the Schemer was. He did nothing as skekTah turned his back on him, taking the fallen Emperor by the claws. skekSo clung like a burr, stumbling as skekTah carefully guided him from the throne room. The court parted around them, shock and wonder and fear filling the air.


	8. Hearts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> skekAru the Acolyte makes another pity bid...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one stars another OC of mine, skekAru the Acolyte. He is a student of skekZok's who, since he's convinced himself love is unobtainable, seeks to gain pity from everyone instead.

"Do you have hearts falling from your gown?" skekAru asked, confused by the sparkling trail on the ground.

"Why, yes, he does!" skekEkt chirped, waving a fan.

"Obviously to show the Gelfling what a lovely person I am," the Chamberlain replied.

The most wretched noise erupted from the Acolyte's throat. Like a gagging sound mixed with choking. skekSil and skekEkt watched as skekAru straightened, coughing.

"Sorry, I had to get that out of my system," the Acolyte said. "I wish I was that lovely."

"Awwww! I think I have extra," the Ornamentalist chirped, eager to glitter-ify others.

"Yes! _Pity gift me_!" skekAru hissed, grinning.

He yelped when skekZok's staff lightly bonked him on the skull. A warning tap, though still painful since the staff was metal topped by a precious gem. The Acolyte rubbed his skull, ducking in submission to his teacher.

"Enough," the Ritual-Master said firmly.

"_Never_!"


	9. Bathtime for the Trash Skek

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It is time for the bi-weekly (sometimes weekly) bath ritual for the castle's filthiest Skeksis--the Sanitation Engineer, skekGar. Welcome to hell.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> skekGar is another OC of mine. He's a rather child-like Skeksis with a love for bones and trash.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!"

The scream was ear-piercing, echoing through the castle. skekOk groaned, hands over his ears. He slunk from the library, hearing the telltale clanking of metal armor. General skekVar marched past, grinning. Behind him strode skekAru the Acolyte, holding his master's staff between his claws. Behind him walked skekZok, head held high, impossibly regal despite the thrashing animal held securely in his arms.

skekGar the Sanitation Engineer, though he preferred Trash Skek. The tall, lanky Skeksis stunk something awful. There were flies flitting around him. The Scroll Keeper didn't dare look too close for fear of identifying what filth was all over the other.

"Bath time?" skekOk guessed.

"Bath time~!" skekAru chirped, voice cracking at the end of his singsong attempt.

One by one, Skeksis Lords slunk from rooms and chambers. The biweekly, sometimes weekly, bath ritual for skekGar was always an amusing show. skekZok had started it many, many trine ago and it occured so often that it elevated from chore to ritual. The ritual Master seemed to take pride of turning skekGar from a filthy beast to the clean Skeksis Lord he should be.

If only it lasted more than a few minutes.

skekGar thrashed and screamed, kicking and flailing like a dying fish. skekZok held tight, having perfected the art of restraining his fellow Lord. skekVar would occasionally reach back to catch a kicking ankle, giving it a tight squeeze to forcibly settle the other. Trips to the bath were always a screaming panic fest.

By the time they reached the baths, skekGar was reduced to a wheezing mess. At least he wasn't crying yet. skekAru and skekVar stepped aside. skekZok freed an arm, taking back his staff while practically cradling the breathless skekGar in one arm.

"Let the bathing ritual...commence!" he declared.

skekGar sobbed. This was _hell_.


	10. Bones

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> skekMal's view of skekGar and his bone-munching habits...

_crunch munch gnaw_

"There's not much left of that," skekMal noted.

skekGar ignored the Hunter looming over him. He munched on the bone, cracking it open with his teeth. He hadn't asked where it came from and he wasn't planning to. His teeth ached to chew.

His teeth, crooked and needle-like, stabbed into the hard bone. They left weird holes, skittering marks, dashes and cuts. skekZok said they held mystical meaning, using these "prayer bones" (stupid name, in skekGar's opinion) in his rituals. skekGar thought that was a load of rakkida scat. It was a bone. It tasted great, but it couldn't let you see into the future or nothing. That was stupid.

skekZok was stupid. And mean. skekGar firmly stood by this.

The Sanitation Engineer gnawed away at the bone until he had broken it into splinters. Then he grew bored, poking at the shards all over the floor.

"Got any more?" he asked, head tilting back to look up at skekMal.

The Hunter wasn't sure why skekGar intrigued him. Perhaps it was the more feral side of him, drawn to the un-Lord-like behaviors of skekGar. Maybe it was skekGar's eccentric curiosity with the wilderness. Or maybe it was just that skekGar really didn't give a damn about anything but bones, so he was perfect to hold company with to avoid the castle politics and drama.

He just wished the Sanitation Engineer was a little less...stupid. The smell, he didn't mind. He'd smelled worse things. skekGar was much like a childling in his mentality. Even his own title made him zone out. Too many syllables strung together, confusing him. skekGar was a challenge to converse with and hold his attention all at once.

No wonder the Ritual Master adored "torturing" skekGar with casual castle activities. skekGar was too childish to understand that these things were normal, letting the other indulge in his sadism without actually bringing harm.

skekMal sighed, recalling the question. skekGar made his thoughts wander too much. "I do, but those are trophies."

skekGar whined, tipping backward to fall across the Hunter's feet. "Meanie."

skekMal soundly kicked him in the head for that. "My trophies."

skekGar pouted but did not ask again. He knew better. Kind of.


	11. Scroll Hunting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> skekGar tries to help skekOk with his scrolls. Disaster occurs.

"Gar found scroll!"

skekOk sighed. "Good jo--GET DOWN FROM THERE!!"

skekGar peered down from wher he was at. He'd scaled the shelf to fetch the scroll in question--at least, he was pretty sure it was the scroll in question. This was where skekOk had pointed, he thought. Now he wasn't sure. Was that why skekOk was yelling at him? Did he have the wrong scroll?

The slow creak of the shelf was the only indicator skekGar needed to jump down. The shelf came crashing down after him, scattering scrolls and book everywhere, along with a healthy helping of dust.

"I told you not to climb the shelves!" the Scroll Keeper cried, staring at the mess in shock.

skekGar had bounded from the fallen shelf, on all fours, back arched like an animal, hissing with his sharp talons sunk into the floor. After a moment, he sat back on his haunches, confused.

"Shelf fall," he said. "Why shelf fall?"

"Because you climbed on it!" skekOk said, frowning.

"...Oh." skekGar reached out to poke a nearby scroll. He batted it. "Gar sorry."

skekOk sighed, pinching the bridge of his beak. "The sad thing is, I know that's genuine." It was always genuine. skekGar couldn't lie to save his tail.

There was no point in lifting the shelf. Neither of them were strong enough, so it stayed where it had fallen. skekOk picked up his scrolls, instructing skekGar to help. The Sanitation Engineer did so, though he'd drop his load to bat at scrolls. He required a good yell to get him back on track.

"We'll just put these here until I can get that shelf back up," skekOk decided, leading skekGar to a half-empty shelf. "Put them in order."

skekGar blinked. Order? He stared at skekOk, trying to figure out how he was doing it. The Scroll Keeper was quiet as he put the scrolls and books up. skekGar stared at the books and scrolls in his arms, trying to decipher what order they could go in.

After a minute, he started putting them up. Books there. Scrolls here. Wherever they fit. It all looked okay to him. skekGar smiled, stepping back to look at his handiwork.

skekOk stared. "...That is not in order. And half of those are upside-down. That one is backwards!"

skekGar blinked, confused. skekOk groaned, moving to fix them. skekGar still didn't understand this mysterious 'order' that was being used. Was it the ribbons? Was there writing somewhere? He didn't get it.

"Gar sorry," he said, head low, claws wringing.

skekOk sighed. "I know. I should've been clearer...or done it myself."

"Gar try."

"I know. I know."


	12. Six Feet Down

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aves joins his village in a funeral...for himself?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aves is a weird one. He's basically an artificial Skeksis construct but because skekTek can't make souls, he used the crystal to try creating one. Instead the soul of a Gelfling got caught in the mix. Thus Aves.

Aves crouched there over the mound of dirt, unsure of what to do now. His hulking form towered over his neighbors with ease, even as low to the ground as he was. He hated it.

This wasn't how it was supposed to end.

Mika rested a hand along his ribs. "You did your best."

Aves gave a small gurgling sound. He hated that he couldn't speak like this. _My best wasn't enough. I still..._

His lifted his beaked head, watching his maudra begin to sing. Stone-in-the-Wood broke into mournful song for their lost neighbor. Aves wished he could join but with his throat incomplete, he'd probably only produce awful screeching. He did them a kindness and stayed silent.

He jolted when Elder Cathri approached with a bowl of various crushed plants. Aves lifted his head, shivering as she began to smear the stuff on him. Streaks of blue and red and green decorated his patchwork skin, staining the metal parts that held him together. He tilted his head away when she painted his beak, so that she wouldn't get it on his goggle-like eyes.

When she was done, she gestured for him to stand. He did, towering over her even more than he already did, by at least four times. It left him dizzy, the sudden height difference. This was wrong. He shouldn't be this tall!

All of this was wrong, yet Thra made it happen.

Elder Cathri began to dance little circles around him. Aves stayed still, tail sweeping around his feet to avoid tripping her. The children joined, laughing and giggling, fears of the immense stranger in their midst eased by the elder's cheery song. The fear died at last.

Aves didn't blame them. Only hours ago, the Skeksis had brought nothing but bloodshed and misery. To have a mockery of one, a construct, present here could only bring fear. But soon they'd know. Hopefully they would understand.

The funeral wound down after what felt like a trine of dancing and singing. The childlings were carried to bed. The elders departed, once Elder Cathri pressed a kiss to the metallic tip of his upper beak. Then his maudra left, leaving only Aves and his few friends.

Aves crouched once more. He'd have to bathe to get the plant fluids off. Was it even safe to bathe like this? He didn't know. He already missed himself.

One by one, his friends left. They gave him--the real him--their goodbyes. Soon Aves was alone over that mound of dirt where the real him, the Gelfling him, lay buried six feet down.


	13. Are You Okay, Dad?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jen notices that Emperor skekSo isn't doing so well...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, somebody suggested a reverse AU where the Skeksis chose to save and raise baby Jen rather than kill him. I'll probably write a proper story about this one day because it's too cute for words.

Emperor skekSo coughed slightly, a taloned hand lifted to his beak to try covering the sound. It was automatic now, this gesture. there was nobody in the room, so it was unnecessary. Yet the Emperor did it as if the whole court were watching.

Today, getting out of bed proved difficult. His stomach rebelled and his muscles jumped, threatening to send him to the floor more than once. If not for his scepter becoming an impromptu walking cane, he may have not left his chambers that morning.

The court's questions were easy to deflect. skekSil was harshly told where to stick his beak when he inquired too intimately on the subject. skekTek received similar treatment.

It was the childling that proved difficult. Especially once dinner rolled around, where others could hear him chatter.

"Why you coughin'?" "Are you sick?" "Your legs are shaking." "You don't look good."

At the annoying age of six trine, Jen was becoming more curious. And talkative. Many trine ago, Emperor skekSo might have ripped the child's head off for all the noise. But not now. Not this one.

This was his childling. And, unlike the court, Jen genuinely cared about his guardian's health.

"I'm fine, just under the weather," he said, tone softer. Gentler. Soft talk, he believed the term was. "Eat your dinner. I see you trying to dump your tubers on the Gourmand's plate."

Jen froze, a few tuber slices tucked into his tiny palm. skekAyuk looked away, having been subtly shoving the already-dumped slices into his mouth.


	14. The HakTah Goodness You've All Been Waiting For

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> skekHak returns home to tend to skekTah and their skeklings.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My dumb AU idea where the Gelfling did overwhelm the skeks and took back the Crystal, but the skeks had to flee into hiding across Thra like wild animals. Plus nobody died, so we got all the skeks and urru. Now add in skeklings because Tah and Hak can't not, I've finally caved again and let them be happy.
> 
> skekCru and skekEer still exist. They are part of my dumb skek canon. *hugs these poor abandoned manga babies*
> 
> This is probably another story that I'll do more of one day. We'll see.

skekHak poked his beak between the curtains of grass, jolting when a hiss erupted from inside. "Easy, skekTah. It's me."

"How was I supposed to know? You have sunlight behind you," skekTah complained.

The former Machinist carefully crawled into the hollow he'd dug into the ground three months ago. skekTah, formerly the Schemer, lay curled around a rough nest of grass, leaves, sticks, and moss. Some scraps of cloth, the shredded remnants of older, decayed robes, lay tangled near the center. skekTah sat up and leaned in, beak nuzzling that of his larger mate.

skekHak nudged him aside so he could see their young. skekTah shuffled aside. A triad of squeaks exploded from the nest as skekAva and her brothers, skekEer and skekCru, complained about the loss of warmth.

They were only a month old, still covered in fluffy down, but they could see and walk. And screech, Thra, they had such loud cries. It scared skekTah some nights. What if they led Gelfling to them? Or another of their fallen fellows?

skekHak pulled a hunk of meat from his pack, crafted from several fizzgig skins stitched crudely together. The skeklings shrieked louder, fighting over the food as their father put it down. skekAva was smaller than her brothers but she was the most competitive, ripping meaty bits of food from her brothers' beaks.

skekTah couldn't help but adore their young. He and skekHak had worked hard to protect them since discovering the small ex-Schemer was pregnant.

"No sign of the others?" he asked warily.

"None," skekHak replied. "Maybe that's for the best, considering..."


	15. The Beginning of Skekling Fatherhood

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> urSan comes to urFlor bearing an unexpected request...

"Do I...want to know?"

urFlor stared at the Swimmer, unsure of what he was looking at. He blinked his lone eye a few times, trying to be sure he wasn't looking at some kind of illusion. urSan sighed, shaking her head.

"I'm not sure I could explain," she admitted, hands open, empty of answers.

The Gardener's gaze lowered to the trio of squeaking skeklings nestled at urSan's feet. The Swimmer looked mildly uncomfortable yet she did not attempt to chase them off. They poked at her belly with their blunt little beaks, making her grimace with winces of pain. They were obviously hungry.

"I'm not...home enough to produce...nor have I been intimate...in quite a while," urSan admitted, cheeks warm. "But you..."

urFlor nodded, understanding where she was going with this. The Valley was bustling with urlings at the moment, so almost all of them were producing milk to help feed them. urFlor was no exception. Hours ago, before he left the valley to chase the soft sound of the Swimmer's whistle, he'd been laying in his cave with two of urTih's urlings and one of urAc's many offspring nursing from him.

He had only seen skeklings once, when he'd last seen urVa. He'd had a skekling and an urling with him. urFlor had known better than to ask why. The Hunter's stink was enough of an indicator.

urFlor settled along the grass, tail flicking. urSan gently herded the skeklings to him, a grateful smile on her face. The skeklings chirped, pecking at him briefly. The Gardener relaxed when they finally began to nurse, though it felt foreign compared to when the urlings did it. More pressure, a bit uncomfortable.

But he would endure. He always did.


	16. Snowbound

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> urFlor has hidden north with the three skeklings, for a reason he is still deciphering...

_peep peep peeeeep!_

urFlor groaned, reluctantly waking up. skekMer continued to peep loudly in his ear, her tiny beak jammed through his mane. Her larger sisters hissed, rolling as they struggled to go back to bed. It was much too early to be up.

Yet the runt of the clutch didn't care. She continued to shriek.

urFlor yawned, slowly lifting his head. He gathered skekMer in the palm of one hand. It still amazed him that she was so tiny, almost half the size of her sisters. It was worrisome too. What if she never grew any bigger?

"I'm up, I'm up," the Gardener muttered, rubbing his eye.

He felt stickiness along his injured eye. He bit down a growl, shedding his heavy blanket so the other two skeklings wouldn't be chilled. He turned, heading for the cavern entrance.

_"Go into Vapran territory. The snow should keep them away."_

urFlor didn't entirely understand urSan's fears but he did as she asked. He returned to the valley for a time, then he headed to the far north until the grass was replaced with snow. It was brutally cold but he endured, the skeklings tucked away in his pouch. That was two weeks ago.

'Them' could only mean one thing--Skeksis. Perhaps whoever the parents were. He had his suspicions...but how did urSan end up with them? So many questions and no answers...


	17. WHY

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> urFlor does something that sends his morals into a tailspin. skekFleur is not happy with the physical repercussions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one involves the whole "skekMal raises baby Rian" AU. Because I love that so much.

"The only one dying today...is you!"

urFlor pressed the whole of his weight against the boulder, finally getting it to topple. The ground under his feet fell too, almost sending the Gardener plummeting over the edge too. His walking stick jammed between the roots of a nearby tree, anchoring him. Today, Thra spared him.

But it did not spare the lupine beast below, who howled as it was crushed by the boulder and every pound of earth and rock that went crashing down with it. The huge beast tried to escape, lunging toward its targets, only to be pinned and buried.

Crushed to death. Or so urFlor hoped.

He shook, heavy breathes forcing his lungs full of desperately needed oxygen. The concept of murder--the act he had just willingly committed--weighed heavy on him. urRu did not kill. Or shouldn't. They were peaceful and passive. Patient.

Today, urFlor was none of those things.

He could feel his damaged eye weeping again. Blood, probably. He slowly pulled himself up and away from the ledge, freeing his walking stick. Then he gazed down at the pair that he had rescued.

The Hunter met gazes with the Gardener, the tiny scrap of a Gelfling cooing and pointing at the urRu. urFlor merely nodded. Then he turned away. He heard the squawk of the tiny child, the heavy stomps of the Skeksis as they vanished into the depths of the forest.

urFlor felt agony singing through his back and shoulders. His arms. His legs. Everywhere. He was too old to be moving so much weight alone.

Pain erupted even hotter from his arm. He froze up before peeling back the sleeve. Words were carved into his sandy skin, spelling out a single word.

_WHY_


	18. Siblings for Jen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jen can't recall when he didn't have a bunch of siblings.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Blame the discord. With all the urling chatter, ndrriarts tossed baby Jen into the mix. Now we have the cutest AU ever, of Jen who was never lonely because he had dozens of urling siblings that aren't going to leave once their parents reunite.
> 
> There might be more of this one in a proper story later.

Jen couldn't recall a time where he didn't have siblings. A big family. Sure, they didn't look like him but they were his. They were all he knew.

Whenever he cried, before urSu or anyone else could get to him, the urlings were there first with cuddles and hugs. Purring squeaks and kisses. Warmth and love.

When he was cold, he had a crowd of younger and older siblings to keep him warm. To shield him from the storms. To guide him when he wandered too far from the caring adults of their family.

Not that he didn't love urSu and his fellows. They all taught him and fed him and loved him. But the urlings _understood_ him better. They shared his curiosity with the things urSu told him weren't good or safe. They could talk to him when nobody else was able. The urlings _got him_.

That didn't change as they got older.

Maybe it was because they had been raised together, from similar ages. Jen wasn't sure, but his bond to his many urling siblings never wavered. When urSu or urTih or the rest failed to understand Jen, the urlings were there to soothe and chat and cuddle. The cuddles were the best. Jen wished he had four arms to hug back with. His hugs always seemed lesser in comparison.

The urlings rather liked that Jen didn't get very big. It made it easy for them to play and swamp him in hugs, knowing they would win. But they were always gentle. Gelfling were fragile, even if Jen had toughened up due to their play. They didn't want to hurt him.

urSu watched fondly as Jen wrestled--well, _tried_ to wrestle--with one of urTih's oldest. The winner was obvious but Jen was still trying. He hadn't been knocked on his back yet. He was barely a tenth of the urling's size now yet he still fought like he had a chance.

This was good. Jen would need that mentality, with the journey ahead.


	19. Warming Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> urSan travels across the frostlands of Har'ar in search of warmth. urFlor is happy to provide.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I ship urSan and urFlor. I'm a dork.

The snow whipped, sharp and cold against her exposed skin. urSan kept walking, feet long since gone numb with cold. But she perservered, chasing the gentle tune of urFlor's whistle. She was so close...

The darkness of a cave loomed ahead among the snowbanks. urSan urged hersef onward, toward it. While she couldn't see the Gardener, she knew he was there, tucked deep within, waiting.

The darkness drove away most of the cold, though the chill stayed where the wind could not reach. The Swimmer kept going, feet like blocks of ice attached to her ankles. Shadows danced as a small fire dwindled. She dodged around it, not interested in red-hot embers or choking smoke.

She sighed in relief as she reached the large frame sitting opposite of the fire, huddled beneath a heavy blanket woven together by urUtt trine ago. urFlor stirred, lone eye opening and a soft hum greeting her. She smiled, ducking under the heavy blanket to join him. It was far warmer there than by the fire.

She always did joke that urFlor was a walking space heater. Like a living being of fire. He was always warm, hot even.

"Now, why are you so far inland, Swimmer?" urFlor asked, not lifting his head from his arms, pillowed under his chin.

"Why are you so far north, in Har'ar, Gardener? There are no plants here to tend to," urSan teased.

"I came to see the Waystar grove," urFlor replied. "They grow beautifully this time of year."

"Is that all that's beautiful here?"

"Well..."

urFlor's face colored and urSan couldn't help but giggle. The Gardener, for as big and loving as he was, was such a shy creature. Especially when it came to those he felt affection for.


	20. TekSa Friendship Ahoy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> skekVar is bullying skekTek...until a bigger fish arrives to bully him right back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look, I just needed some TekSa friendship goodness, okay?

skekVar wasn't sure when she arrived. He was just doing his job. Shaking skekTek up a little. The guy was getting too mouthy! He needed to be knocked down a peg...or three...or ten...

If he'd had any idea that the Mariner was home, he'd have left the Scientist alone.

"And what are YOU doing to MY teacher?" she snarled, blue feathers rising, teeth bared.

skekVar dropped skekTek so fast, it was like dropping a hot coal. The General back away, puffing up himself. He was big, the biggest in the castle in terms of weight and raw power...until skekSa came home. She could eat him for breakfast and still have room to spare. skekVar watched her, trying not to display his fear but his scent carried notes of panic. skekSa's grin grew as they circled each other, the Mariner expertly maneuvering skekVar away from the fallen Scientist and toward the exit of the lab.

"When did you get home?" skekVar spat.

"A few minutes ago. I had catches to drop off. Didn't want to look less than my best for the Emperor," skekSa said, casual and light. Her expression promised pain. "Instead I find you here, harrassing my teacher. Don't you have Gelfling to corral?"

skekVar took a step out of the lab. Then his other foot followed. skekSa filled the doorway with ease as she followed him out. Stance predatory, terrifyingly reminiscent of the Hunter if he were three times his size.

"I'd run," skekSa advised softly, crooning the words. Gentle and sweet.

skekVar obeyed without a second thought. He spun and ran, nearly colliding with skekUng at the other end of the hall. One look her way and the warrior was bolting too.

skekSa laughed, leaving the hall for the comforts of the lab. skekTek was on his feet again, though shaky. She reached out a hand to help him, predicting the swat before it even came. She wasn't offended. Pride was a powerful thing and even she bent at its call. She let her teacher gather himself, leaving him be while she poked her talons at what caged specimens he had.

Sidetic chirped merrily. skekSa chirped back. It wasn't communication by any means but the sound was comforting to the caged animal. skekSa wondered if they'd ever learn its language.

"skekVar won't let you get away with that," skekTek warned.

"Let him cry to the Emperor. He won't do a thing to me," skekSa said, withdrawing her talons from the fluffy bird's cage. "Are you okay?"

"I'll live."


	21. Explaining Yourself

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> urSu goes looking for urFlor and finds a very tired foster dad...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> urFlor has so many skeklings. Help this poor old dad.

urFlor really had no real explanation for his predicament. All he could do was lower his head and hope he looked ashamed enough to avoid a lecture. The scene might've looked better if he was wearing a shirt and there weren't six skeklings attached to him, with quite a few more crawling on him and tiny skekMer shrieking in his hands.

urSu simply stared. This was not the scene he had expected when he'd come looking for the Gardener. He'd left the valley, fearing the worst when he heard the story.

Only to reach the Scavenger Tree and find urFlor unharmed, if rather burdened with the fluffy, squawking young of their various counterparts.

"I can explain," urFlor said awkwardly, rocking skekMer until she finally ceased her screaming.

"I am both curious...and afraid...of what this explanation...may entail," urSu admitted.

"Well, urSan started it," urFlor began.

They weren't sure how long they were there for. urSu watched the skeklings--there were fifteen of them when he finally counted--race about and nurse and clamber into urFlor's pouch to take turns napping. For how chaotic the babies were, they seemed to have a smooth system among themselves for who got to do what when. They never strayed terribly far from urFlor, shrinking from the darkness beyond the light the campfire brought.

What odd little things, these skeklings.

"And that is why I have not been home in so long," urFlor finished. "I seem to have...taken quite a burden."

"Sometimes I fear...your heart will be your undoing," urSu admitted. "Yet your heart...has protected you thus far."

"It is better than...letting castle life devour them," urFlor reasoned, moving to break up a brief squabble. "Or the wilderness. urVa feared for those...that skekMal carelessly sired...without him."

"Then it is good...that you are here," urSu said, smiling. "You have a good heart."

urFlor might've thanked him had skekMal's previously mentioned offspring not divebombed his skull from above, the twins shrieking in delight.


	22. Swim

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> urSan tries to get urFlor to swim...

"I can't."

"Yes, you can. Trust me," urSan said gently. "I'm right here."

"I'll sink," urFlor protested, staring at the river uncertainly. "I'm too heavy."

"You're buoyant, trust me," the Swimmer coaxed, taking his hands in hers.

urFlor trembled as he stepped into the water. It was cold from the morning. urSan moved backward, taking him until the water spilled over his knees and threatened to wash over urFlor's back. The Gardener shook but refused to break her gaze, even as hyperventilation gripped his throat.

"Here's the drop off. I'm going to cross it. Then you'll follow."

"I'll sink," urFlor said, eye wide.

"You won't. Trust me. I'd never let you sink, urFlor."

Then she was gone, diving into the depths of the river. urFlor stared, coughing when another rush of water soaked his hair and made him lift his head. Panic swallowed him. Where was the Swimmer? She should've surfaced by now, surely!

She couldn't drown. She was the Swimmer! The Swimmer cannot drown! Right?

...Right?

urFlor stared at the speeding current. It tugged him to the edge. He could feel the water grow colder here, darker. A sheer drop who knows how many feet, yards, miles, deep. He could sink forever if urSan was wrong.

_"Trust me."_

urFlor shook. Clasping his hands together, he took in a deep breath. He would trust her, even if his fears screamed otherwise. Then he lurched forward and took a step off the drop off.

And plunged into the dark abyss below...


	23. Coming Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> urFlor returns to the valley. urTao can't comprehend how the Gardener got so many skeklings.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> urTao is the counterpart to skekTah the Schemer, for those not familiar with him.

urTao stared up at the larger urRu as he approached. It had been many trine since he'd seen the Gardener. He'd heard bits and pieces from urSan and urVa, telling that the other was safe and alive, merely...preoccupied. Neither seemed willing to tell him or anyone else what that meant.

Now he knew.

urFlor wrung his primary hands, looking torn between embarrassment and shame. The cacophany of chirps and squeaks drowned out whatever words he may have spoken. He was practically covered in skeklings.

urTao had never seen skeklings before. Urlings, certainly. There were several in the valley and he helped babysit most of them. They weren't what he expected, these skeklings. Most were downy balls of fluff with beaks and tails. Two larger ones were perched along urFlor's back, a good chunk of their down having fallen away to reveal gray-pink skin and maturing abdominal anatomy.

The urling in his pouch shifted, yawning. Its pouch-mate shifted too, pulling off of a nipple to swat at the other before resuming nursing. urTao suddenly felt on edge.

"They won't hurt anyone. They probaby won't leave me," urFlor said.

"Probably," urTao pointed out, the Planner nervously trying to count the number of tails and beaks.

"It's only until I can find another safe place to nest. I'm heading north again," the Gardener explained. "They'll be contained."

urTao didn't entirely understand why urFlor was telling him. He should be telling the Master. Then again, maybe the Gardener was nervous and was using him to test his explanations. urFlor overthought such things too much. urTao relaxed when, indeed, not a single skekling chose to 'jump ship', per say. Most seemed content to duck into his tangled hair or his pouch, if not directly into his clothes.

"How many?" urTao dared to ask, helping urFlor down the path to the valley floor.

The rest lifted their heads, noting the return of their brother. As well as his odd foster offspring. None approached. urTao looked for urSu but there was no sign, same with urZah. Perhaps they were both out again.

urFlor was quiet.

"How many?" he prompted again.

"...Twenty-two."

urTao's jaw dropped.


	24. Too Much Neck

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> skekNek comes home and displays a rather interesting ability. He regrets coming home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> skekNek the Inspector is another OC of mine that began as a joke. The idea of a skek with a long crane-like neck but being able to hide it is very amusing to me.

"Welcome home, skekNek!" skekZok greeted, arms open in welcome.

The Skeksis Lord shuffled forward, head tucked into a mass of scarves at the neck of his robes. skekNek was never much of a talker and had a habit of wandering off silently with no notice. He'd vanish for trine before popping up again, never telling where he'd gone. Once upon a time, skekGra had said he was too much like the Wanderer in his habits.

skekNek didn't care. His eyes were half-lidded, hiding their dual colors. skekNek was very much an odd Skeksis.

He bowed to the Emperor, almost bending himself in half with the gesture. skekTek suspected a neck injury of some kind but the Inspector refused to let the Scientist look him over. He didn't appear to be in any pain so skekTek reluctantly let it slide.

Dinner was its usual mix of entertainment and madness. skekLi juggled and did other dumb tricks to amuse the Emperor. It kept the court preoccupied.

Until skekLi slipped on a bit of pie on the floor, fell flat on his back, and had the second pie land on his face...and skekNek erupted from his scarves, rising several feet higher than any of the other court members.

"What the hell?"

"skekNek, what is that?"

"Where did all that neck come from?!"

skekNek blinked, finally staring his amused gaze from skekLi. Then he realized his mistake. His head was now roughly six feet higher than it should've been. Eyes huge, he shrank in on himself, neck folding neatly into his scarves until he was his usual height.

The court stared. Well, except skekLi. The Satirist still laid on the floor, dazed from the fall and the impact of a pie on his beak.

"...Inspector?" skekZok prompted.

"No comment."

"Inspector, what was that? Your neck, it was--"

"No. Comment," skekNek growled, eyes narrowed.

"You're double your actual height!" skekVar bellowed.

"...So?" skekNek said.

"This is a big deal!" the General declared.

skekNek just groaned as the court babbled in awe. This was not what he'd wanted his fellows to see today. He could already imagine all of the ridiculous things he'd be forced to inspect now thanks to his stupid neck...


	25. Ornaments on the Tree

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> skekNek witnesses carnage and realizes he doesn't like what he sees.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for suicidal thought implication. And hung Gelfling bodies.
> 
> I was listening to "The Hanging Tree" before I wrote this. Music really effects me.

skekNek stared up at the tree. There was a bitterness in his mouth. Guilt, regret, anger. The sister moons stared down at him, taunting him with their light.

The Inspector wasn't supposed to feel bad, damn it!

_"Run!"_

_He watched the Gelfling woman fall, having cut her rope. Her mate dangled helplessly from skekVar's claws, broken and bleeding. A rope was being looped around his throat._

_skekNek tensed, then gave chase. The woman jumped to fly but he struck fast, claws ripping at her wings so she fell. He almost tripped over her. She rolled, tear-streaked face looking at him. He drew his sword, aiming it at her throat._

_"Do it," she hissed. "It's better than being one of your tree ornaments!"_

_skekNek froze then. His gaze rose to the bodies hanging from the trees. Ornaments. Yes, they were ornaments. Not worthy of being drained. Only good if they were dead._

_He was so transfixed by this realization that he didn't notice the woman rise and escape until skekVar clubbed him atop the skull._

skekNek lowered his beak, neck tense among all of its scarves. Then he lifted himself to his full height, neck extended to...inspect. So many Gelfling. He spyed the mate of the one that escaped him, still dripping blood from the General's torture.

He idly wondered if skekMal would've been amused by all of this carnage.

The rope felt rough in his hands. An ornament, huh? Gelfling made for poor ornaments for a Lord. What would they think..if they found him here?

It was...tempting. How terrifying.


	26. Swim

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> urSan teachers her and urFlor's urlings to swim. urFlor is a proud daddy to far too many kids.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had to indulge the SanFlor bunnies! And give him some urlings to go with that pack of skeklings he has.

"There you go. Kick, paw. Kick, paw. You're getting it."

urFlor stood there on the beach, the water rushing over his toes. The skeklings darted across the sand, chirping and squeaking. He'd amassed quite a herd of them now. At least the oldest ones were learning to corral their younger nestmates so the Gardener could get some rest.

Especially now with his own urlings to deal with.

"Kick, paw. See, watch your brother. There you go!"

urSan was out in the water, four arms extended at either side of her. With her, tiny paws clinging to her big fingers, were their urlings. Two of them, big rolly polly things. They had only just opened their eyes and urSan already had them learning to swim.

It might've worried urFlor if it wasn't the Swimmer. She wouldn't let anything bad happen to their children.

"Kick, paw. There you go. You have it!" she praised.

urFlor smiled, heart swelling with love. For his mate. His children. The herd of skeklings that he had taken in over the past few trine. His family.

All his to love and cherish.


	27. Lap Dancing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The dead skeks are stuck on Thra, invisible but able to see everything. skekLi decides to do yet another thing he'd never dare do while alive. skekVar has to one-up him...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You in the Circle of the Suns discord know who you are. You spawned this. You know what you did.
> 
> AoR Lach in this one, btw.
> 
> WARNING--ghost lap dancing and a naked skekVar. Blame skekLi.

"So....who's doing it next?"

skekVar stared at the Satirist in shock.

They'd done a lot since he'd arrived in the afterlife...which wasn't what he expected. He'd expected either vomit-inducing fuzzy world of flowers and puffy clouds and fizzgigs...or a hellish domain of lava and maybe some ice for that awful hot-cold parallel.

He hadn't expected to basically sit up from his body, still on Thra. He'd howled and screamed at the Chamberlain for a bit, chased him when the other fled, and even struck a Gelfling...only to realize nothing he said was heard and nothing he did had any effect. The Chamberlain kept walking. The battle kept raging. The Gelfling kept fighting, passing through his claws like water.

And then skekLach died too and he had to explain all of this insanity to her.

Now they were here in the castle, so many trine later. The court--what was left of them--scurried around the throne room in various conversations. And here the group of dead Skeksis, ghosts, transparent and dead and very bored, stood before the throne.

Where skekLi was giving the Emperor a lap dance.

skekVar might've roared in offense trine ago. Seizing the jester by his throat and thrown him away to preserve the Emperor's honor. But...that was trine ago. The Emperor couldn't see them, hear them, feel them. Even now, skekLi peppered that metal beak with disgusting kisses that might've had skekSo rolling into an early grave if he knew.

But he didn't. Wouldn't until he died and skekLi inevitably confessed to it. He certainly had no shame in telling skekVar all the horrible things he'd done to the General, or the Chamberlain, or even the Ornamentalist. Death made a Skeksis impossibly bold, even the most meek of them.

skekVar's face was still warm as skekLi finished, rising from skekSo's untouched lap. The Emperor would remain none the wiser to the dubious acts his fallen court members engaged in. Unaware that as he scratched his beak and enjoyed his music that the Satirist had enjoyed himself in the royal lap of the Skeksis who had seen fit to cast him to his death.

"Well?" skekLi prompted. "Who next? You can't say I'm the only one who wanted to do that!"

"If it were skekAyuk, I'd be all over it," skekSa joked. "I don't think those scrawny legs could take me."

skekVar sighed again before stepping forward. "I'll do it. But I'm one-upping you."

"What do you--"

skekLi's sentence died as armor dropped. skekVar bit his tongue but did not hesitate. If he was doing this...debauchery...then he was going all in. He sat nude on his Emperor's lap.

"All hail our Emperor," he said, glad he'd silenced the Satirist at last.


	28. First Hunt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> skekJat and skekRes try to hunt. Things go badly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I blame Tsuncoon and their amazing fic "Honor to the Emperor" for this. I couldn't get this two nerdy babies out of my head since making them.

skekJat tensed, watching the fizzgig hop through the leaves. He was hidden behind a bush, his brother skekRaz with him. The twin Skeksis, just entering their young adult trine, were curious about hunting. They saw their younger brothers and sisters pounce on reptiles and minnows, but none had dared go for anything bigger.

skekJat, the bigger and braver of the pair, wriggled on his haunches. All four hands grasped the leafy ground, ready to thrown him forward. Just had to wait for the fizzgig to turn around...

skekRaz mostly watched his brother. skekJat was older by a few minutes and had quickly become to dominant of the pair. They were the oldest, even though the younger skekMer and her siblings had been with father longer. Where skekJat held the size, power, and strategizing skills, skekRaz was creative, stealthy, and intelligent. And a bit goofy. And too sweet.

skekRaz had no interest in killing the fizzgig. If anything, he wanted to hold it. Pet it. It looked so fluffy.

But his brother had made the call. They were hunting. They would kill it. And they would eat it, just them two. Father didn't need to know.

Father. He was probably back in the clearing, caring for the others. Just last night, a strange shadow had dropped off three more tiny skeklings before vanishing into the night. skekRaz always wondered what did it. It was rarely the same person each time. Father never talked about it. He just took in the infants, caring for them as he had the rest.

Father didn't look at all like them. He was big and slow, without a beak or claws. His skin had weird swirls on it and he stayed low to the ground. He had a long mane that was usually matted with leaves, sticks, and flower petals. And the occasional skekling or five.

Father said he was an urRu. They were Skeksis. skekRaz didn't understand. Father hadn't made them. He was just caring for them. Where were their actual parents? Did they not want their offspring? Why give them to Father?

skekRaz wondered about his true parents sometimes. Father said they were children to two very powerful Skeksis. They were royalty, born to a warlord gone rogue. He wouldn't elaborate further. skekRaz felt concern for it, though. Why would their parents just...give them up?

skekJat wasn't bothered as much by such things. As far as he was concerned, their birth parents had given them up and that was that. Royalty held no real meaning to him. What mattered was growing, learning, and one day helping Father.

And right now, skekJat wanted to hunt properly.

He’d seen enough predatory beasts do it. All you had to do was be quiet, wait, and pounce when your prey wasn’t alert. Go for the neck or underbelly. Mortally wound it with teeth or claws. Then you had food.

Granted, skekJat had never killed before. How hard could it be?

The fizzgig turned away, hopping. skekJat barred his teeth and pounced, all six limbs throwing him from the bush to attack. skekRaz froze, not moving. skekJat might’ve yelled but right now, all he saw was his lunch whipping around. He was on top of it, scratching and biting and OWOWOW HIS ARM IT WAS BITING HIM OWWWWW!!!

skekJat rolled, shrieking as the ball of fur hung on, body almost split in two to sink all of those sharp teeth into him. His dark blood splattered, painting his arm and chest. He screamed louder.

skekRaz cried out, moving at last. He tried to grab the fizzgig and pull it off, but his brother kicked him in the stomach and screamed more. Unsure of what else to do, skekRaz spun and fled from the clearing. His heart battered the inside of his ribcage as he ran.

Father was where they had left him. The other skeklings, ranging from just a trine or two younger than him to only a few days old, were dead silent as he barged in. Before the urRu could say anything, skekRaz was babbling about the hunt, skekJat being bitten, that they couldn’t get it off, and the blood. Oh Thra, the blood!

“Stay here,” Father ordered, pressing the newest skeklings into his arms.

skekRaz sunk to the ground, mind fuzzy. skekMer and her sisters slunk close, chirping in comfort as they hugged him. All he could think of was his brother, screaming and bleeding in the woods.

.o.o.o.o.

skekJat couldn’t believe this. His brother left him. He left him! Alone! With this thing on his arm! He couldn’t believe this. What happened to sibling loyalty?

skekMer would’ve never left her sisters behind. Each batch of skeklings seemed to bond strongest with their nestmates. He had thought he and skekRaz had that powerful of bond. But no, no. skekRaz left him when he needed his brother most.

skekJat wouldn’t have left him! He’d have gotten this fizzgig off, if it took him all day and night!

The oldest skekling snarled, sharp claws tearing through brown fur. Maybe he could kill it like this, break its jaw, and free himself that way. He tried to ignore how dizzy he was getting. That was a lot of blood spilling down his arm…

“skekJat! Where are you?”

skekJat froze. Father. It was Father. How? He almost wanted to cry.

Then he did cry, pleading for help, that he was over here. He sobbed as the bushes parted and the massive shape of Father emerged. The urRu gasped and rushed over, clutching skekJat’s arm beneath where the fizzgig had bitten.

“How did this happen?” Father asked, shocked.

“I wanted to hunt,” skekJa croaked. “But I messed up. And it bit me. And skekRaz left me. And, and, and…”

“Shhhh.” Father lowered his huge head to nuzzle the youth’s beak. “Stay still. I’ll have it off in a moment. It’s only biting harder because you’re flailing.”

skekJat fought everything in him to stay still, trying not to move. Father stroked the fizzgig, speaking softly as he placed two hands under and behind it. And, like some kind of miracle, the tiny beast let go and dropped into Father’s hands. skekJat shrieked, rolling onto his side. He clutched his bitten arm to his chest, sobbing.

He felt weak and stupid. He’d messed up his first hunt, skekRaz had abandoned him, and Father had to rescue him. Just like when he was tiny. skekJat was sure he had been getting better at not needing to be rescued all the time!

Father set the fizzgig free, waving goodbye as it bounded into the forest. Then he turned, lumbering toward where his oldest child lay.

“Shhhhh. Let me see,” he instructed, gently peeling the injured limb from his son’s blood-streaked chest. “It’s very deep. We’ll need to clean and bandage it. A spring isn’t very far from here.”

skekJat insisted on walking on his own two feet. He kept the bitten arm close and fought hard not to wobble. He was too old to be carried, in his opinion. Father stayed close, a steadying arm held out in case the youth stumbled. The urRu led them near home, only to detour away to a spring that they frequented on chilly days and when it was time to bathe.

“I can’t believe he left me,” skekJat grumbled.

“He is why…I found you…” Father said, words deliberately slow, like a lecturing teacher. “He didn’t know…what else to do…but get me…”

“Why didn’t he tell me?” skekJat demanded.

“He was scared,” Father replied, gesturing for the youth to sit by him at the spring’s edge. “Arm in the water, skekJat. We must cleanse it. The inside of a fizzgig’s mouth is rarely clean.”


	29. The Pretty One, the Smart One, and the Foolish One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> skekLach has a strange love-hate for her two friends, skekOk and skekEkt. She reminisces on this and herself in her final moments...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is AoR skekLach. Spoilers for the last episode of AoR.

skekLach didn't regret anything, except not killing the Gelfling. Both here and back in the tunnel beneath the castle. Stupid Arathim! She was so close! She could've done it!

She'd have finally stood out as something beyond her pustules and ooze and wet blanket personality.

She was a Lord too, damn it! Give her some recognition. She had survived the stupid blight that was supposed to hurt the Gelfling. She had evolved from just a simple Census Taker to being the greedy Collector. She had goals! Dreams! She wanted power too!

Just...not at the prices others would pay.

She didn't want the Chamberlain on her back. Or the Emperor's total unblinking attention on her. She wanted to collect her treasures, show them off, and then get back to work. Hang out with skekOk and skekEkt. The usual.

Sometimes those two made her jealous.

Everyone went to skekEkt because he was pretty. He made beautiful things. Even the Emperor would pander to the Ornamentalist, not that he needed to but the fact that he actually would drove skekLach up a wall. Nobody pandered for her attention!

skekOk had all the knowledge in the castle. Granted, a lot of it had been rewritten and was chock full of lies but nobody woud accuse him of it allowed. That was for behind closed doors. skekOk was given command during the census and tithing. skekLach was treated like a troublesome child tagging along for the ride. It was why she made it a point to rail against his knowledge to others who'd ask, just to get his tail in a twist.

It was all in good fun, really. Despite their squabbles, she really did love her two friends. The pretty one, the smart one, and...

The foolish one. The one who was weak enough to catch the blight that wasn't supposed to affect living things. The one who survived but couldn't be bothered to pester skekTek for cures (he was actually pretty frightening to her, no thanks). The one who, after such a tragic event, no longer took the daring chances she once did in life.

Until Stonewood. Until the rebellion, where she seized her swords and stood alongside her allies. Sure, that Arathim managed to get the better of her before, but now she had Gelfling to slay.

She couldn't help but feel pride, not jealousy, when skekOk managed to cut down the Stonewood maudra. Even prissy skekEkt had managed to down a few Gelfling on his own. skekLach couldn't help her cackle as she swung and slashed.

And then the lightning came. No, the Darkening. Not from the Emperor, oh no. From a Grottan girl, who had absorbed it and threw it back. skekLach wished she knew how it was done.

The others had scrambled out of the way. skekLach found her feet weirdly frozen, transfixed by the pretty purple that arced around her before striking her head on. Her insides felt like frying before the strange energy dissipated.

For a moment, the foolish one had believed she would be okay. She should have known better.


	30. Just In Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> skekZok fears for skekVar in the midst of battle and goes searching for his friend...

skekZok didn't know why he did it. He should keep fighting. These Gelfling needed to be put in their place, lest Skeksis rule be disrupted. What would the Emperor say if he realized the Ritual Master had abandoned the fight?

But...he had a horrible feeling about skekVar. And he hadn't seen the Chamberlain in a bit either.

He would accept whatever punishment was dealt to him. After he made sure his friend--yes, it was stupid but the Gelfling term matched the relationship between him and the General perfectly--was okay.

So skekZok abandoned the fight, easily ducking away. He followed the trail of black blood on the ground. How dare that stupid Gelfling bring harm to a Skeksis? If anyone else failed, skekZok would happily tear the boy's head from his shoulders for the crime. It was the least that could be done.

"Help me."

skekZok froze, hearing skekVar's voice. He hurried, arounding the next corner...and his jaw dropped at what he saw.

skekVar was crumpled nearly to the ground, blood drenching his robes where the Dual Glaive had stabbed him. Standing over him, blade raised, was the Chamberlain. He was smiling.

"You took my seat," skekSil hissed.

skekZok had no idea how his feet were so fast. The Chamberlain swung, the blade ready to pierce skekVar's chest, to kill him perhaps. The blade screamed as it clashed against another, metal on metal, red hot sparks jumping between them. skekVar, with a small moan, curled along the ground in a mix of pain and relief.

"skek...Zok," he whimpered.

skekSil shrieked. "Ritual Master!"

skekZok stood over the fallen form of his friend, blade pressed hard against the Chamberlain's. He took a step forward, pushing the other back another few feet. skekSil whimpered, eyes huge in terror. This was not supposed to happen. This was his revenge on the General, the culmination of all his planning...and this happened? Impossible!

"What are you doing? You're supposed to be killing Gelfling!" skekZok snarled, freeing one hand to seize the whimpering Chamberlain by the throat. "What were you about to do?!"

"N-n-nothing! Ritual Master misunderstand!" skekSil pleaded.

"Then explain!" he roared, flinging the other away. "Or prepare to suffer the fate you planned to deal skekVar."


	31. Stranger Danger

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Miko and her four adopted childlings find a rather important intruder in their hut one day...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A snippet of future content for my fic "From The Blue Flames" because I wanted to. A hint of TekSa here because we all need more of it.

skekLar hissed, fluffy down rising in a bid to make himself look bigger. skekRen puffed alongside him, though the blind skekling was unsure of why they were puffing up exactly. urMy and urRan clung to the edges of Miko's dress, afraid.

Miko could barely breathe. She stood frozen, watching the hulking mass of feathers and frills and treasure move about their tiny hut. A Skeksis, a fully grown one...and one she only knew from stories.

skekSa the Mariner.

skekSa moved about, rearranging things. Picking up the blankets from the floor. If nobody knew any better, she might've passed for a very large maid. But everyone knew better, which only made her behavior more puzzling.

A Skeksis Lord of the Crystal had no need to clean messes, yet skekSa picked up around the little hut with the ease and speed of a creature a tenth of her size.

Miko swallowed, finally piping up. The words barely came out. "Why are you here?"

The Mariner paused. She turned, sharp red eyes landing on the tiny family. Roving over the two hissing skeklings, the trembling urlings, and the young scrap of a Gelfling standing over them, shaking like a leaf in a summer storm. It was rather cute. Adorable, even.

skekSa smiled, curling and too full of sharp teeth. "Oh, me? Why, I'm just here doing what the rest seem to be failing at--lending a helping claw. You're just one Gelfling. You can't possibly do everything alone. Why, even skekMal realized this."

skekMal? Miko tried to place the name but could put no face to it. She'd never heard of a Skeksis Lord named skekMal before.

"I know it's only four now, but more will be on their way. I'm just here to lend you a helping claw or four," skekSa said, straightening out the bed. "And frankly, I'm rather curious to see what my dear teacher has made while I've been away."


	32. skekLo the Bald Skekling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> skekSa and skekZok's clutch has finally hatched, only to give them a terrifying surprise when one skekling is without any down...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Blame the guys in the Circle of the Suns discord for introducing me to Lola the rotisserie chicken sphinx. I created this abomination from that. Bald skekling incoming!

"Where are his feathers??"

skekSa looked at skekZok, silent with shock. The Ritual Master looked down at their clutch of four, unsure if his eyes were working. She looked too. Then they both reached out to touch.

Three of their skeklings were just fine, fluffy and cute and _normal_. Then there was...this...bald thing. skekZok might've thought somebody had dumped a dead thing into their nest if he hadn't watched it hatch just minutes ago. This was definitely theirs but...

"Why does he have no feathers?!" skekSa demanded.

"Why are you behaving as if this is my fault?" skekZok asked, just as lost.

"Well, it wasn't me!" skekSa declared, grabbing fistfuls of her gorgeous feathers.

"It wasn't me!" skekZok argued, tugging aside his robes to show off his own beautiful plumage. Granted, his was duller and thinner but nonetheless he had feathers! "I don't know how this could happen."

Their brief argument was cut off by the sharp peeping of their chicks. After a brief panicked staring contest, skekZok snorted and gathered them to him. "Shhhh. No more crying. I'm here."

A meal was enough to settle them again. Though bald, their oddball skekling was just as loud and squirmy as his siblings. When skekTek checked in on them, he was met with a vicious barrage of questions and the tiny bald child being shoved in his face.

"HOW?!" they demanded.

"What did you do?!" skekTek squawked, snatching the child from them. "You ripped out his down! You...did...nothing??" He ran his talons again over the child's wrinkled skin. "...Was he like this when he hatched?"

"Yes," skekZok said. "How did this happen? They've all had down on them!"

"Could be...some kind a genetic mutation. A misstep that led to him not having the protective down that skeklings usually have." skekTek tapped his beak in thought. "You'll need to be very attentive. He doesn't have the temperature protection that he should."

The featherless skekling, dubbed skekLo, spent a lot of time squashed between his siblings or tucked beneath layers of his parents' robes...


	33. The SaNa That Nomi Asked For

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> skekNa is desperate to earn skekSa's love. She just wants him to go away. Cue a hunting trip gone wrong...or right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You did this, Nomi. This was you.
> 
> There may be more of this, I'm weirdly interested in this strange pairing now. lol

"For the last time, no."

skekNa looked up at her pleadingly, hands clasped. "Mariner, believe me. What I say is true!"

"Oh, I don't doubt it's true. I just don't want it," skekSa said, exhausted. "Look, skekNa, I'll say it again. I'm. Not. Interested."

"How do you know if you won't give me a chance? I can surprise you!" skekNa declared, trying to make himself look just a bit taller.

"Surprise me, huh?" skekSa sincerely doubted that. "Look, skekNa, you're sweet. I adore the chocolate and the flowers. Not so much the corpse left on my doorstep."

"It worked for the Hunter!" skekNa complained.

"That's him. This is you," the Mariner said, crossing her arms. "Look, I don't need a man. Not now." Maybe not ever. "I'm not interested. I'm sure you can find someone else."

"But nobody like you," skekNa insisted.

Really, she had been into the flattering and compliments. At first. Now they were just...getting on her nerves. skekNa didn't know how to _stop_. He was obsessed. Sometimes she regretted how her feathers held on despite the others' beginning to fall out or lessen. Besides skekEkt, she was probably the most beautiful Skeksis on the court.

She was honestly probably prettier than the Ornamentalisrt now but she wasn't ready to incite the extreme levels of screaming that skekEkt would create if his spot as most beautiful was questioned or challenged. skekSa was just not that ready for the meltdown. Let him have that crown. She had dozens back in Vassa, in a pile, handcrafted specifically for her. He could have this invisible ego crown.

skekSa just wished he would take skekNa too. skekNa seemed to completely ignore skekEkt's existence in favor of her and she hated it! More than once, she was tempted to chuck him off the nearest balcony just to make him be quiet.

"skekNa, no. Just stop. If I change my mind, I'll let you know," she said firmly.

"Give me a chance! I can prove myself!" skekNa begged, again getting in her way before she could exit.

"Okay, fine! Prove yourself then!" skekSa snarled, annoyance at its peak. "There's a beast known as a kurtah that roams the coast. Find it, wrestle it, bring me back its head. Do that and I'll give you a chance."

skekNa's eyes lit up so fast, it almost made her regret the offer. "Deal!"

For three weeks, skekSa enjoyed the silence. skekNa wouldn't find a kurtah because they didn't exist. She made it up. He'd be out there for unum searching. She almost felt bad but...he was so annoying! She had to!

So when he came back, bloodied and battered, with the head of some great tusked beast dragging behind him, she nearly shat a brick.

“Couldn’t…find a…kurtah…” he gasped, blood streaking his face. He was missing an eye now and she suddenly felt a stab of regret. “So I…asked around…and heard of…gredos…”

Gredos were massive pack-travelling beasts that only came to the coast during breeding season. They were insanely territorial and easy to enrage. To imagine skekNa actually defeating and killing one was…impressive.

“So…about that…chance…”

skekNa didn’t get to finish his sentence. He tipped forward, eye rolling in a sudden faint. skekSa reached out, catching him. She ignored the head that bounced across the floor. Her emotions warred angrily in her.

“Yeah, yeah, you get your date. Moron,” she hissed, hauling him into her arms and stalking off to hunt down skekTek.


	34. Aughra Finds an Egg

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aughra sees a streak of light land in the forest. She goes on a search for it...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a rewritten premise to a very weird fic I had ideas for about...two years ago?? Aughra finds an egg in the woods, it hatches into an urRu and Skeksis pair, and junk happens. Aughra needs help in that big old orrery!
> 
> They were named urSis and skekRu. I inverted the species' name parts. It's dumb, I know, but they're mine. Shhh.

Aughra kept moving, growling at the aches in her joints. She was much too old to be wandering through the forest but she needed to know. Needed to find that bolt of light. Something about it called to her.

She had to find it. Must find it.

She was sure she had to be near it by now. It had been hours of marching through brush and smacking thorny tendrils and climbing over thick tree roots. The moss provided safe resting spots for her aching feet and knees and hips as she walked. She would no go home empty handed. She couldn't!

Had to find it. Had to be here somewhere. Where?

A plume of smoke caught her eye. Not far now.

She kept going, her staff helping to clear the way as she walked. Jogged. Ran. She hadn't ran in many trine. She'd never needed to. She was the voice of Thra, its first child, its earthy guardian. There was nothing she would ever need to run from.

The forest parted here, exposing a huge hole in the earth. Even the stubborn moss had burned away. Laying at the bottom was a strange gold and purple stone. Aughra carefully slid down into the crater. The earth warmed her feet.

The stone seemed to pulse with a life of its own. As she lifted it into her arms, she swore she saw movement. Perhaps it was no stone at all. There was life inside. An egg, maybe? She looked to the sky but, like clouds did, it gave no answer. She snorted, clambering awkwardly out of the crater.

"Sky gives Aughra an egg, huh? Why? Aughra don't need more children. Have plenty! Gelfling! Podling! What more would Aughra need?" she huffed, cradling the egg to her breast as she walked.

Inside of the egg, twin souls stirred. Registering the voice and warmth outside. Imprinting on it...


	35. Warmth in Winter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> skekGeth has an unwanted guest in skekMal one chilly evening. skekMal rapidly realizes he cannot stay warm alone and takes advantage of his host...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to do more with my Creature Shop snow boy, so I tortured him with skekMal.

skekGeth could've told the Hunter how stupid he had been, deciding to try hunting in the frozen north. But it had been almost a hundred trine since he'd last seen one of his own kind, so the Orb Holder kept his beak shut. He had no doubt that the Hunter might drive a knife or five into him for any kind of snarky comment.

skekMal huddled in on himself on the frozen floor of the Orb Holder's den. Or one of them. skekGeth had several hundred scattered all over the frostlands and more were made as he travelled. He watched the Hunter shiver, hardly dressed for the impossibly low temperatures that the north could dish out.

"What are you looking at?" skekMal hissed, burning eyes glaring at the larger Skeksis.

"Nothing," was the automatic response.

skekGeth worked on the tiny fire, fanning the smoke out of the exit. The winds howled outside, blowing snow in every direction. Already a decent pile was spilling inside, threatening to snow them in. The Orb Holder swiped his short, thick tail to knock it away temporarily. The fire flickered dangerously, barely staying lit. There was too little tinder for it to burn long.

"How can you stand this?!" skekMal snarled, rubbing his arms.

"I had no choice, remember?" skekGeth pointed out. "Your furs help. There was a reason I bartered for everythig you had back then."

skekMal snorted, redoubling his efforts. He curled tighter, looking much smaller than he already was. The Orb Holder felt a smidge of pity but it's not like there was anything he could do. If he offered to lend him some of his robes, the Hunter would be offended and yell at him. skekMal was so difficult that way.

skekGeth turned back to the fire, only to hiss as it went out. He seized the stick of magnesium he had, scraping flakes off in a bid to restart it. He could feel the Hunter staring at him.

The fire would not light. The tinder was burnt through.

"Looks like that's that," skekGeth muttered, tucking the magnesium stick away.

skekMal growled. As the dark set in, skekGeth struggled to see the darkening shape of his fellow. After an hour, he gave up and focused on curling in on himself. It would be a long, dark night without the fire. He was used to nights like this.

skekMal was not. He was used to getting a fire going in any weather. In any environment. But he'd never gone this deep into the frostlands before. As far as he was concerned, no fire meant no warmth. No warmth meant death.

It was almost three hours later when skekGeth felt talons on him. His head snapped up and he hissed, fangs bared in his blunt beak. skekMal hissed back, a deep, guttural noise that might’ve shaken any creature to the core. But not skekGeth. The Orb Holder was not afraid, not now. He could feel the bone-numbing chill in those talons, the shudder in that hiss. skekMal was half-frozen, weak and frail in the arctic temperatures.

skekGeth could take him down if he truly wanted to. It would be painfully easy.

The words out of skekMal’s beak were what made the larger Skeksis Lord freeze.

“Get your legs down and open these.”

Talons moved south, seizing cording and snaps and buttons. skekGeth barely registered what was happening before he felt his outermost robes being tugged. Torn open by frozen talons. His knees were forced down, legs flattened. The Orb Holder reared back with a surprised squawk as he suddenly had a lap full of frozen Hunter, who fumbled bitterly with his companion’s clothes in a desperate search for warmth.

“If you want some of my robes, you can have them!” skekGeth declared, panic bubbling in him. He shifted to wriggle out of his outer robe, a heavy fur coat.

skekMal stopped him with icy talons to his throat. “Don’t you dare. You keep all of it on.”

“What are you—”

His words broke off as robes close to his skin were ripped open, exposing his pink-tinged skin to the chilly air. He hissed, talons rising to seize skekMal by the shoulders. How dare he? Who did the Hunter think he was? Did he not realize the importance of staying covered up, even in a shelter like this? Was he trying to make the Orb Holder freeze too?

skekMal ducked under his talons and suddenly it wasn’t just his lap that was taken but his abdomen too. skekMal, skin icy and body shivering, had crushed himself into the open space of skekGeth’s robes. His snarl turned into a strange content purr.

skekGeth squawked in further alarm. He could feel the warmth being leeched from him, the chill of the Hunter’s cold skin replacing the warmth he had gathered for himself. His talons raised again to seize the shorter, to pull him away, perhaps even chuck him outside into the raging snowstorm. It would serve him right.

The cold point of a knife, trembling from its owner’s frozen state, prodded at his ribs. skekGeth fell perfectly still, fear replacing rage. skekMal chuckled, his threat made clear.

“You and me, skekGeth… We’re going to sit here a while and stay warm…and come morning, you will help me hunt my quarry…” he ordered, fangs chattering. “Is that clear?”

“…Crystal clear,” skekGeth said bitterly.

“Good boy.” The knife stayed where it was, though skekMal snuggled just a bit closer. “Tell me, how have you survived up here so long, when I can barely last one night?”

skekGeth wanted to refuse. To hold his tongue and keep his secrets. But the knife prodded again and he spilled his secrets. Better than spilling his guts and letting the Hunter nest in those all evening. He rather liked his innards where they belonged, thank you.


	36. A Final Kindness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> skekGra and urGoh pass out in the Crystal Sea after their banishment. A certain journeying desert Skeksis gives them shelter...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finally did a piece with skekTaro, one of the other Henson Creature shop skeks. I swear I'll do one for skekSith soon too.
> 
> I made up the name of his pet thing. The image of skekTaro and said pet will be at the bottom of this fic, as one was for skekGeth at the start of this drabble series.

skekGra groaned, head lolling. He wasn't sure where he was.

The last thing he recalled was stumbling through the Crystal Sea with urGoh, trying to find somewhere to take shelter. The heat was intense and his--their, it was both, even the nail was driven into only his--head ached and bled freely from his banishment.

He was laying somewhere. It was cool and shaded. A spike of panic shot through him. Where was urGoh? skekGra tried to rise, only for his head to pound brutally and send him back down on the...bed? Cot?

"Easy, easy, Conqueror."

Long fingers landed on his chest. Unnaturally long, attached to small hands. A blunt beak and narrowed golden eyes came into his field of view. Sandy-colored skin, a large amount of feathers erupting from around the neck. A Skeksis.

skekTaro the Sandmaster, his title swiped from the Dousan Sandmasters that he'd stalked for several trine before being cast into the Crystal Sea almost a hundred trine ago.

"Looks like you got something jammed in your skull. I'd pull it out but your Mystic pal said to leave it be."

A fluffy rock-dwelling creature resembling a large feline-like squirrel darted across skekTaro's shoulders. A stoneflit, if memory served. skekGra had seen them before in the mountainous regions that he'd conquered. It wasn't too surprising to find one in a desert.

skekTaro's long fingers, clad in bandages, carefully rearranged the cold clothes over the larger's chest. skekGra sighed in relief.

"urGoh... Where is he?" he mumbled, tongue sticking to the roof of his mouth.

"Have some water first, friend. You were both fainted out there. Dehydration."

Glass tapped his beak. skekGra almost choked on the first few sips before his tongue finally unstuck. He drank greedily, even lifting a hand to seize the pitcher. A small whined escaped him when it was empty.

"Your Mystic friend is fine. Had to slap together another cot. Wasn't expecting guests...well, ever," skekTaro admitted.

When he scurried aside, skekGra saw the massive shape of his other half. urGoh’s hair was still matted with blood, though a good amount of gauze was now covering the injury he had. Relief blossomed in skekGra’s chest. They were both okay.

“What are you doing out here with a Mystic, Conqueror?” skekTaro asked, returning to his side.

“My…other half…” skekGra explained. “I was…banished… Heretic now…”

“Banished? Heretic?” skekTaro looked lost. “What did you do? The Emperor loves you. Everyone does. You’re our Conqueror. You practically gave Thra to us. All of it! How could you be banished?”

skekGra felt his throat close. Would skekTaro throw them out too, if he explained? If he tried to plead his case here to the Sandmaster?

skekTaro flapped a hand, fetching another pitcher of water. “You know what? I don’t want to know. Things have changed, as skekMal was too happy to tell me last time he passed through here on a hunt. I guess you got the short end of the stick somehow.”

skekGra offered a nod, grateful to not have to explain himself. He wasn’t keen to return to the scorching sands so soon. He watched his counterpart breathe for a bit, soaking in the relief. They had lived. They were supposed to die out there but the Emperor had foiled himself by banishing them to skekTaro’s territory. Perhaps he had forgotten about the Sandmaster.

“Where…are we?” skeGra knew this wasn’t the Wellspring. This was no Gelfling village.

“The Dousan call this place the Circle of the Suns. Stupid name, if you ask me,” skekTaro said. “I tuck away in here a lot. It’s shaded and cool and Thra’s Breath brings in a nice breeze from the Caves of Grot. Really nice on those really hot days.”

“The Dousan…don’t bug you?”

“I doubt they know I’m here. Apparently this is a place of death or something to them,” skekTaro said, passing skekGra the pitcher. “Drink slow. Your counterpart had his fill earlier. You should both be okay now.”

“Thank you…” skekGra said, downing the pitcher. Crunching the ice between his teeth. It felt wonderful on his throat.

“If you were banished, then you can’t go back to the castle,” skekTaro said, taking a seat. The stoneflit slunk into his arms, letting his long Arathim-like fingers card through its fur. “I’m just in here temporarily, so if you…you know, want to stay here, you can. I doubt anyone will come looking for you here, even if it is a giant spire towering into the sky in the middle of the desert.”

skekGra slowly sat up, strength restored with the water. He still felt shaky and his head ached, but less so now.

“We can’t just…take your shelter…” he protested.

“You can have it. It’s a pain to get up and down from here,” skekTaro said, waving a hand. “The Dousan are nomadic, so I crash in the empty villages they vacate. That’s much easier. You’ll need this place more than me. You might’ve gone everywhere in your conquering, but desert living is nothing to scoff at. Call this an advantage for you.”

“…Thank you,” skekGra said.

“No problem, friend. Call it a final kindness. I may not know why you were banished, but I’m not keen to see you die so pathetically, if you do at all,” skekTaro teased, smirking.

skekGra smiled back. Mercy had shined on him and his mission.


	37. Help With Rejections (NSFW)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> skekZok finds skekNa in a rather compromising position with his Podling slaves. skekNa doesn't seem to care.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one has a lot of implied NSFW in it. This was spawned by the whole skekNa/skekSa thing and the idea that a rejected skekNa would probably get drunk and hang with his Podlings...which were headcanoned to be very into orgies... Turn away now if that is not what you're here for. This is your warning.
> 
> skekZok having a Gelfling harem is also a headcanoned thing over in the Circle of the Suns discord, started by nrrdiarts on tumblr.

"skekNa! Where are you?" skekZok knocked on the other's chamber door. "Open up, if you're in there."

He could certainly hear movement. And voices. A loud babbling that carried skekNa's loudness, though it was slurred. The Ritual Master sighed, forcing the door open. It wasn't terribly difficult. skekNa always forgot to lock up behind himself.

The scent of alcohol crashed into him like a tidal wave. He reared back with a hiss, sleeve raised to filter out the stench. He could see bottles on the tables.

He had an idea what brought this on--yet another rejection by the Mariner.

Only...skekZok couldn't see skekNa. Just a very large number of Podlings. Why were they in here? They were supposed to be down in the servants' chambers until they could be trained. They were all piles together in a tangled, heaving mass of...

Were they naked??

skekZok suddenly regretted looking a bit closer. Then he snarled, the pile suddenly moving as something underneath shifted. The flick of a long tail told him all he needed.

"skekNa, please tell me you haven't chosen to take physical solace in drink and Podlings," he groaned.

"Sssshut up!" skekNa slurred from under the pile of Podlings, who never seemed to stop moving in their efforts to either please or hide their master. skekZok couldn't tell which. "They..._get me_, y'know? Not like...you!"

"You're drunk," skekZok said, frowning. "At least get in bed."

"No," skekNa croaked.

He finally sat up enough that the Podlings scurried to uncover his head and shoulders. He glowered at skekZok with his single eye, the other covered in...? Thra, the Ritual Master prayed that wasn't skekSa's underwear. She would *kill* him. Where did he even get that?

"...Yet you'll wallow here in Podlings," skekZok said, clearly disapproving. "If you were looking for an outlet, you could ju--"

"Ask you? Pah! You'd jump at the chance," skekNa accused him, sneering. "I don't need you. Or skekVar. Or anyone! I got plenty here to keep me company. And they don't _judge_!"

"Because Podlings are orgiastic. They couldn't judge a potato," skekZok grumbled, miffed.

"Why don't you go crawl in--" skekNa broke off to hiccup. "Crawl in skekOk's bed? He's always looking for attention!"

skekZok shook his head, turning away. “I’m not going to indulge you. You’re clearly too far gone. I’ll leave you to your lesser pleasures.”

“Better than all those Gelfling in your bedchamber!” skekNa shot back.

skekZok’s face burned. “My Gelfling are cultured and far more skilled than your slaves are.”

skekNa snorted, bursting into laughter. skekZok held his tongue. There was no use in defending his little harem. None of them would hear of this anyhow. He spun with his robes billowing elegantly behind him. He almost wished skekNa would take notice but drink had clouded his mind. Perhaps tomorrow he would bring this up again, when the other had clearer thoughts.

“Yeah, you run! Coward! I’ve got all the pleasure I could want!” skekNa shouted as his chamber door was slammed shut behind the fleeing Ritual Master. He sniffed before looking down as the mass of diminutive servants covering him from chest to tail. “...What are you looking at? I never told you to stop.”

The Podlings moved, almost like they were a single overly-lumpy being. skekNa sunk back into the mass, purring as hands and mouths got to work pleasing him. Working away the image in his mind of the teasing Mariner. His talons tugged the lacy undergarment covering his ruined eye, letting him take a deep sniff.

If only she could see him now. She’d know how worth it he was. That he _deserved_ a chance!

Until then…more for the Podlings. At least _they_ knew how to keep him pleased.


	38. skekLo versus Sweaters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> skekSa just wants her bald child to stay warm...

"Momma, stooop!" skekLo whined. "I can barely move as it is!"

"Hush. It's cold out," skekSa said, forcing an eighth sweater of her child's head. "One more, then you can go."

"You don't do this to the others," skekLo grumbled, cheeks puffing in a pout.

"The others still have down and their feathers are coming," skekSa said. "You..."

"I don't. Just say it. I'm an ugly, bald Skeksis!"

"Hush! I never said that!" skekSa hissed.

"You may as well! It's true!" skekLo declared. "You and dad only spend so much time on me because you feel bad!"

"What is going on in here? I hear yelling." skekZok poked his beak into the room. "...skekSa, how many does he have on?"

"Eight," the Mariner replied.

"Three more. Then he should be fine."

skekLo whined loudly as his mother pulled another sweater over his head. Once he was fully dressed, skekZok plucked him from the bed and carried him out. skekLo would've crossed his arms if he could move them, so he settled for pouting. skekZok noticed and sighed, blue eyes rolling.

"Your mother worries. So do I. We all do."

"You shouldn't. I'm fine," skekLo grumbled.

"I know you are, but let your mother fawn. You are our skekling and--"

"I'm bald and ugly and I'm never getting my feathers so mom's gonna drown me in clothes forever!" skekLo whined.

"Technically, skekEkt is drowning you in clothes," the Ritual Master corrected. He prodded at the topmost sweater. "Are these...fizzgigs?"

"...Yeah?"

"With wings?"

"I think they look cool with wings," skekLo said.

"...Interesting."

skekZok continued to walk. skekLo took the chance to lounge back in his father's arms...or lounge as best he could when he was basically a sweater ball with a beak and tail. How did mother expect him to move like this? Breathing was already hard! And he was getting awfully hot in all these layers.

"Your mother loves you very much," skekZok said, pushing open the courtyard door. "Try not to hold it against her. Or me."

His other three skeklings looked up from their play, chirping in joy as they saw their sibling. skekLo hissed as his feet touched chilly stone. The Ritual Master took a seat, nodding gently to skekShod. The Treasurer nodded back but did not rise, opting to toss a few more coins at the skeklings. They squeaked and trilled, chasing the rolling coins and pouncing atop them. It made skekShod smile, an expression that skekZok once thought lost to the other. They watched skekLo try to join the chase, only to trip and get stuck rolling along the ground by the sheer number of sweaters that he was dressed in.

"Daaaaaaaad!" he wailed.

skekZok laughed. Then he rose to aid his child.


	39. When the Darkening Made Deet Evil

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Corrupted by the Darkening, Deet turns on her friends and the Skeksis alike during the battle of Stone-in-the-Wood, only to be stopped by a force that is her opposite...

"Now die!"

The Darkening exploded from Deet's fingers, arcing and leaping across the space. Gelfling shrieked and screamed, beginning to scatter. skekSo stepped back, eyes huge. He never imagined his own power would be used against him like this.

A small shape shot past him, past Aughra, past Rian and Brea and Gurjin. A young Stonewood Gelfling woman stood in the way of the incoming lightning, arms outstretched and wings spread. Her long dark braid snapped in the wind.

"No!"

Blue fire exploded from her hands. The fire roared, stretching up to block the lightning. The two elements, one of pain, one of healing, waged war between Deet and her opponent. The newcomer grit her teeth, feeling her skin itch and burn as her fire became too much even for her to bare.

The Darkening fizzled out just as her flames died. A stalemate. The girl's arms, blackened from fingertips to mid-elbow, fell limp to her sides.

"How dare you," Deet hissed, violet eyes flashing with rage. "Who do you think you are?!"

The woman lifted her head, blue eyes narrowed. For a moment, blue flame seemed to spill from the left one. It was gone faster than a blink. Maybe it had never been there at all. Or maybe it had been.

"I'm Miko of Stone-in-the-Wood," she said coldly. "And you're attacking my family. My people. Our home."

Deet growled. "And the Skeksis? You protect them too?"

Miko didn't move. She didn't need to. Behind her, the seven clans and Aughra regarded the haggard band of Skeksis Lords in their midst. Not a word was spoken.

"I protect them too. We are all of Thra," Miko said.

"They are not of Thra!" Deet shouted, hands thrown out. "They have hurt Thra! Destroyed it!"

"Destroying them won't fix it," Miko said. "Healing the crystal will. Your path of destruction only promises death to us all."

Deet stared for a long moment. When she spoke again, the kindly Deet they knew was absolutely gone.

"Then so be it. Die like the insects you are."


	40. The Assistant and Witness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pip is the young assistant to Lord skekTek. Things are not what they seem in the castle. Pip doesn't know what to think of her Lords...

Pip curled on the stool, trying to shake the images from her head. The ten trine old Stonewood girl still couldn't process what she had seen. What she'd heard. None of it made sense.

She thought living here in the castle, serving under a Lord of the Crystal, wouldn't entail so much violence and bloodshed.

Yet in the span of days, she bore witness to a growing number of horrible things. Each more gruesome than the last. It was perhaps her small size that attributed to her never being caught. That or her master was conveniently ignoring her presence during these events out of some strange form of favoritism toward her.

She sat in the corner, still trembling like a leaf. Watching Lord skekTek wash his gloves and claws, the dark blood washing away down the drain of the cleaning station. Erasing the evidence of murder.

The Gruenaks--she had like them, even if they couldn't talk back due to the stitches--were gone. Dead. Even now, Pip wasn't entirely sure what happened. There had been a fight between Lord skekTek and them. The fire shaft, which her master told her to stay away from, suddenly became more than just somewhere to toss trash to be eaten by the lava thousands of miles down. One had been thrown to their death. The other had been beaten brutally without end.

"Pip?"

The Gelfling child jolted, terror striking her. Her master's mechanical eye swiveled in her direction, the brilliant beam of white light landing on her. Was he going to kill her too?

"See to Sidetic," he ordered. "I believe he needs a bath now."

It was so casual. No different than her usual orders. As if she hadn't witnessed him kill his Gruenak assistants.

"Pip?"

"Yes, sire," Pip said, hopping off the stool.

She shoved the events to the back of her mind, in the same box that held the memories of the peeper beetle. Of that guard that the crystal ate. Of the Gelfling trapped in the cells, begging for help that she had to ignore.

She dragged her stool to Sidetic's cage, climbing it and opening the door. The green bird chirped. There were blood streaks on his beak and feathers. Pip shushed him, beginning to wipe away the mess with a damp cloth.

"Shh. It's okay. Everything is okay," she said softly. "It's over now. Nobody will hurt you."

She felt skekTek loom at her back and prayed that her words rang true. Not just for Sidetic, but for herself.


	41. Where is Jen?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jen vanishes. urSu worries. The urlings are amused.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More of the "Jen is raised with the urlings" headcanon. Because it's cute and I need it in my life.

"Jen? Where are you?"

urSu poked his head into the third cave he'd visited today. His young Gelfling ward had vanished and hadn't returned last night. The child was probably still in the valley somewhere but it worried the Master that the child hadn't checked in yet. He usually did.

He was probably distracted. The urlings did that too often now.

"Jeeeeeeen," he called, leaving the empty cave.

"Nothing yet?" urZah asked, meeting him at the valley center.

urSu shook his head. "He is probably playing with the young ones."

"He should still check in," the Ritual Guardian said, frowning. "This is very odd for him."

"We will keep looking," urSu said, moving past his friend. "Jeeeeeeeen."

It was several hours of searching that the worry truly began to mount. He checked with urSol, who had Jen last, but the Chanter did not know where the Gelfling had gone come morning. Most of the urlings were clueless, though the giggling behind his turned back made urSu the slightest bit anxious. Where had Jen gone? What were the urlings not telling him?

As night fell, it was approaching a full day cycle since he had last seen his tiny ward. urSu felt sullen, disappointed in himself. What if Jen was in danger? What if things were worse than what they truly were? Jen had to be close by, if the urlings' behavior said anything. But where? Why make him worry like this?

It was after dinner that Jen finally revealed himself, sitting cross-legged in the Master's cave. urSu was overcome with emotion and embraced the tiny child.

"See? I'm okay. I was following you all day, Master," Jen explained. "I wanted to see if you would worry."

"That was very unkind. You worried us all," urSu scolded, stroking the boy's hair. "If not for the urlings, I would have feared the worst."

"I'm sorry." Jen hugged him back. "I just thought...with all the urlings, you loved them more."

"I love you all equally. We all do, Jen," urSu said. "Never do this again."

"I promise," Jen said. Then he smiled. "I had the urlings get extra food. You didn't eat a lot, so let us eat, just you and me."

"Mischief maker," urSu said, though it was with a smile. "Tomorrow you will apologize to everyone."

"Yes, Master," Jen said, digging into his dinner.

urSu watched with a fond smile, heart lighter now that he knew where his ward was. It worried him that Jen felt so inferior to his siblings. That would need to be rectified and soon, lest this event repeat itself again.

But later. For now, his stomach demanded sustenance.


	42. My Bohrtog Left

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> IrWin is taking care of his bohrtog when a strange song whisks it away from him...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just really like the bohrtog from Power, okay? I didn't mean to make more urSkek/Skeksis/urRu. It just happens!
> 
> urSkek name is unoriginal and lazy. I don't care. If this guy was split, and he might be eventually, it'd probs be into a Skeksis Trapper and an urRu Wrangler. We'll see.
> 
> Pic of a bohrtog here, for those who haven't read Power of the Dark Crystal. https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/darkcrystal/images/6/6c/Bohrtog_first_appearance.png/revision/latest?cb=20190923060944

The bohrtog was very restless today.

The urSkek Tamer IrWin sighed, reaching out to draw the blue reptilian head close. Its forked tail writhed, spines rising. It was agitated yet excited all at once. A strange energy seemed to fill it from wingtip to nose to tail. He was unsure what all of it meant.

He stroked the long snout, shushing it. The bohrtog rumbled, passive and gentle. Good thing too. These were insanely powerful creatures.

"What has you so excited?" he wondered.

The bohrtog rumbled again. If only he could understand the creature but such a skill was lost to him. He knew a few colleagues who had picked up on the languages of the beasts of their world, but IrWin had never quite nailed it. He wished he had. It would be very useful right now.

The bohrtog huffed, lifting its head from his hands. IrWin watched as the beast opened its jaws wide, a loud song erupting from its serpentine body. Six wings and dozens of spines flared, body seeming to glow.

There was a strange song in the air. IrWin swore he recognized it but he could not place exactly where...

And before his very eyes, the bohrtog suddenly vanished, dissolving into glittering dust.

IrWin stared for a time, mouth agape. Shock swallowing him. He had never seen such a strange phenomenon in all his years. Though his ward was gone, the song that had taken it away spun wildly in his head. So familiar, yet distorted, as if parts had been torn out and the rest had to make up for the lack.

It sounded like a friend he lost long ago...


	43. Needles for Health (And Hate)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> skekTek summons skekZer the Acupuncturist to relieve pain in his hand. skekZer stirs trouble.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Obviously, warning for usage of needles.
> 
> skekZer is another of my OC skek dorks. Yes, I have too many. No, I regret none of them.

"Ow! Watch it! That hurt!"

"If you don't move, they don't hurt. Much."

skekZer sighed between his fangs, making sure to jiggle the acupuncture needle just a bit more. Just because he could. skekTek hissed, resisting the urge to yank his hand away. He'd already been stabbed once for doing so.

"Relax," the Acupuncturist insisted. "The point of this is so you aren't stressed. Look away or close your eyes. Breathe. Count backwards or something."

"You're making this hurt!" the Scientist accused.

"I am _now_ because you're being a skekling," skekZer replied. "Now shush or the next one is going in your wrist."

skekTek held his tongue, already devising how to get back at the other for this. skekZer ignored him, inserting a few more needles across skekTek's knuckles. The hand had been aching for a while now and he'd been summoned to relieve the pain, his specialty.

But skekTek hated him and he hated skekTek.

"Feeling better yet?" skekZer asked after a few minutes.

"Just the same. Are you even doing anything?" skekTek growled.

"There are fifteen needles in your hand. I should _hope_ I'm doing something. I'm not here to mess around, Scientist."

skekTek bit down the urge to insult skekZer. He really didn't want a needle in his wrist. And his fingers were tingling now, so maybe something was happening.

"This would work better if you stripped down and actually let me hit the most effective points."

"You get my hand or nothing. This is invasive enough!"

"Whatever you say."

skekZer was rather annoyed at that. He could name six other points that were infinitely more effective at relieving the pain and tension in skekTek's hand, and furthermore along his arm and shoulder. Granted, their mutual dislike of each other probably was to blame for that too. But really, doctor-patient confidentiality! Surely skekTek could overlook it for his health.

...Though, him intentionally making this painful might not be helping things. Oops.


	44. Songbird

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> skekTek is frustrated after a long day. He takes comfort in his pretty Gelfling pet...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was inspired by a very odd dream where I was the Gelfling. I just needed to get it out of my head.

"That buffoon!" skekTek hissed, stomping into his bedchamber. Slamming the door behind him. "How dare he! Does that moron realize how many weeks it took to distill that mixture? I don't even have the materials to recreate it!"

He tugged at what little hair remained on his head, tempted to rip it out. Then he redirected, smacking tools from his desk. A beaker shattered on the ground, thankfully empty. A Podling slunk from the dark of a corner to sweep up the glass shards, silent.

skekTek spun, stalking to his bed. It was a massive thing, much like any Skeksis bed. Tall with curtains and the plushest of coverings. He dropped beak-down on it, screaming bitterly into the duvet. Then he lay there, still as the dead he spent most of his days poking away at.

The Scientist was tired. So tired. Of everything. Of everyone.

After a few minutes, when the glass had been cleared and his tools had been replaced and the Podling had huddled back in their corner, skekTek moved. Just one hand, talons blindly groping near the head of the bed. Searching. When they found thin cloth, moth-eaten, they stilled before turning from brutal to gentle. Painfully aware of how paper-thin the skin was beneath.

skekTek gathered himself into a hunkered crouch at the center of his bed. His quarry didn't fight him, boneless in his talons. Long since broken in the mind, in the heart, yet still living. It fascinated and disgusted him all at once, yet the intrigue compelled him. He gathered the tiny thing to him, a low hissing spilling from his beak. A comforting sound, to those that bothered to differentiate such things.

Most did not.

The Gelfling woman--Stonewood maybe but skekTek had long forgotten for certain--allowed herself to be pulled into his lap, buried among robes smelling of decay and fire and death. She didn't flinch away from his talons or from his beak, which nuzzled her temple, teeth catching on her hair briefly. She was so ridiculously small compared to him, not unlike all Gelfling, yet she was thin, almost a skeleton, helpless unless moved. Her eyes were blank but not like the drained. Nothing like them. Just blank, unfocused, gone but not dead.

skekTek had decided not to drain this one, almost five trine ago. He'd drained her children, her mate, her parents, her neighbors...but not her. She had been pretty--still was--and kind. She had witnessed the brutality of his fellows, watched the General brutalize him in his own lab...and had taken pity on him. Helped treat his wounds. Sang to him as he drifted in and out of consciousness. Didn’t try to escape.

Not that it would’ve helped. Where would she have gone? The castle was crawling with Skeksis and Garthim. She’d have never survived.

He wasn’t entirely sure why he spared her. She was pretty. She was kind. She was smart. All three of these could be ignored as casual Gelfling traits.

But she had taken pity on him, even after he’d drained everyone she knew and loved. She had cared for the monster that tore her world asunder.

skekTek wasn’t a kind master. The Podling could say that much, but it should be grateful it could still speak. He’d done both a kindness, secreting them from their cages and into his bedchambers far away from his lab. Nobody knew either one lived, alive and alert and still brimming with essence. skekTek was sure they’d be found one day but they’d survived five trine. He’d stretch it as long as he could.

skekTek pulled himself from his thoughts, absently stroking the Gelfling’s hair. He’d long forgotten her name and didn’t particularly care what it was. Same for the Podling. He wondered idly if either remembered such things.

“Sing me a song,” he ordered, words slurred with exhaustion.

The Gelfling did not speak, not anymore. But she still sung, her gentle voice carrying around his chamber. The Podling tapped its broom on the flagstones, adding a back-beat to a language that it could barely grasp.

skekTek sighed, resting his beak atop her head. Enveloping her in his arms. Exhaustion weighted heavily on him and it was not long before sleep called to him. He reluctantly unwound, dragging his singing pet to the pillows. There he curled around her, like a mother around her offspring.

As his snores grew, her voice waned. The Podling fell silent once more. The cycle had been completed.


	45. Zok Rescues Freckles (And Dooms Him Too)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Freckles is set before the crystal to be drained. skekZok comes to the rescue...?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finally did it~! I finally did a ZokFreckles thing~!

Freckles writhed in the Scientist's grasp, trying to get free. His fellow soldiers cried out, trying to rush the door but skekVar was there to knock them back. The General cackled as the Sifan was strapped to the chair. Freckles struggled despite the futility.

"Princess Tavra, please! Stop this!" he begged.

Tavra stood there blankly, that...thing...on her face. An Arathim, he was pretty sure. Even as he begged, her expression never changed. It was horrific.

"Quiet!" skekVar snarled. "You thought you'd get away with rebellion. In _our_ castle!"

Freckles tugged at his bonds, whimpering as the Crystal of Truth was lowered into his field of view. Thra, why was it that color? What had they done to it? How long had it been that way? He wanted to cry, almost hearing the broken song that spilled from its cracked facets.

"Ready," skekTek said, tugging a lever.

A reflector moved in front of Freckles, refracting a beam right in his face. He wanted to look away, eyes burning...but he couldn't find the strength to. It felt like his energy was being sucked away. His very life.

...So this was draining. Everything Rian warned them of. Why had they not listened before now? Now...it was too late...

"What are you doing? Stop at once!"

There was screaming. A huge shadow to the side. Freckles could barely see past the violet light, vision growing fuzzy. Then the beam was gone, reflector knocked away with a brutal crash. Freckles groaned, head hung as he blinked away the spots. He felt so weak now.

"What are you doing? You idiot! My machines!" skekTek screamed.

"skekZok, what's gotten into you?" skekVar demanded.

"I told you, skekVar. This one is mine!"

"I was draining it for you!" skekTek shouted.

"I don't want it _drained_!” skekZok snarled. "I want it _alive_!"

“Alive? What would you possibly want with a _living_ Gelfling?” skekTek demanded. “Oh, my machines! You’ve completely smashed my reflector!”

skekTek kept screeching and yelling. The General and Ritual Master sounded much closer now, voices lower. Freckles barely was conscious. How was he even still alive? Could one survive being drained?

“Well? What do you want it for? I thought you liked the short, ugly one.”

“I do, for the essence. But this one, I like the look of.”

“…You really want to keep it? What will the Emperor say?”

“If you say nothing, I won’t either.”

“…And the weakling?”

“I’ll leave him to you. You’re good at that.”

The General chuckled lowly. Freckles flinched when talons touched his wrists, ripping away his bonds. Then he was picked up like a sack of potatoes. The ground beneath him moved, along with flowing red and gold robes.

The Ritual Master had him.

Talons ran through his long reddish hair as he was carried from the Chamber of Life. “Oh, I’m going to have so much fun with you, little redhead.”


	46. Set the Spirit Free

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Gelflings' grim reaper comes to set the trapped spirits of Thra free. A dark entity watches in amusement.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just need some Lyneth and skekGuar stuff, okay?
> 
> These are my OCs. For context, Lyneth is a Gelfling with a tiny fragment of the Dark Crystal in her eye. skekGuar is an artificial Skeksis crafted from darkness that formed within Lyneth's mind due to her suffering because of the crystal fragment. These guys are from my Garthim Slayer fic.

Another soul robbed from Thra.

The hooded figure stared down at the ground. Violet flame erupted from the hood, burning from an eye long ago pierced by a fragment of crystal. Corrupt and twisted, but beautiful in its own way. The flame burned and danced, never catching the hair or hood alight.

A long scythe was resting atop her right shoulder, the blade spiked and curved to a wicked point. Almost crystal itself, a rock buried deep underground. Thra herself had gifted the weapon, a twin of a twin. What that meant, they did not know.

They lifted a hand to push back the hood, revealing a pale Gelfling face. Stonewood with short brown locks. The non-burning eye was the same brown, yet violet seemed to infect it as well.

The Gelfling known as the Reaper, the Garthim Slayer, the Undead, lifted the scythe from her shoulder. She twirled it before swinging the immense glittering blade over her head. In the soil under her shoes, a blue energy screamed for freedom. Long devoured yet not destroyed.

"Return to Thra and suffer no more."

The Reaper brought the blade down upon the body buried under feet of moss and soil, setting the spirit free.

Arching above her and her blade, an inky Skeksis shadow cackled.


	47. No Context

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There is no context. This just gets to exist here.

"I can reverse an action on the person opposite of me. Sweet!" skekOk said, grinning as he read the card.

"So, you're safe from something," skekLach grumbled. "I wanted that card. I already had to eat a full turkey tonight!"

"Hush," skekZok growled, trying not to move. His robes were currently full of thorny branches.

"Yeah, shut it," skekVar agreed, stuck jogging in place. "End the round already! My legs are killing me!"

skekSil smirked, leaning over to the Scroll Keeper. "If you ever use that, do use it on me."

"...Why?" skekOk asked.

"I have a fetish for being betrayed."


	48. Different

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> urCue wants to know why he doesn't resemble his siblings. skekJat tries and fails to educate him. Sibling relationships are weird when the siblings look nothing alike.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's urCue as in like "cute". urCu looked funny to me and made me think of "coo". Yeah.

urCue never really understood. Why was he so different compared to his older siblings? They had beaks and talons. Even their names were different! skek rather than ur.

He tried asking his father. urFlor didn't really have answers beyond "not all family looks the same".

urCue was frustrated, even just three trine old. He wanted to understand!

"Who cares?" skekJat asked, plucking a feather from his mane and tucking it among urCue's fluff.

skekJat, along with his twin skekRaz, were urCue's oldest siblings at eighteen trine. He was the one urCue took most of his frustrations to. Not that skekJat was very helpful, but he did try. Kind of.

"I want a beak! And talons! I want to be skek!" urCue cried.

"Why? You're so round and cute," skekJat argued, poking urCue's belly lightly. "I miss being that small and fluffy. Now I have to deal with molting and hormones and adulthood. It sucks. You don't want this."

"Why am I the only one like me? You all look different," urCue whined, collapsing dramatically to the sand. Not a long drop, just a few inches. He was still so tiny.

"You look like dad. I was confused why we didn't look like him," skekJat admitted. "Took me a long time to figure out why."

"Why? What was it? Tell me!" urCue pleaded.

"Well, duh! Because we're not his bio...boi...?" skekJat growled, shaking his head. "He didn't have us like he did you, urCue. He took us in. Our parents didn't want us or couldn't care for us. It's weird."

"Huh?" urCue looked lost. "Why did they have you if they didn't want you?"

"I don't know. Adults are dumb like that! They want something and then they get it and then they don't want it anymore so they throw it at somebody else and they move on and they forget you and..." skekJat sniffed, looking away. "It's dumb, okay? Be glad you're not like that, urCue. Dad wanted you so bad and he got you."

urCue stared. He knew he shouldn't call his sibling out on crying...but he was still so confused...


	49. The Skeksis Cuddle Pile I Know You've Wanted

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Winter is awful. Skeksis contact is awful too, but the cold makes the horrid birds more willing to see each other favorably if it means not freezing to death in bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted it. You wanted it. So here it is. Take your Skeksis cuddle puddle and enjoy it.

"Ghhh! Get off!"

"You're on my arm."

"What the hell are you doing on my tail?"

"Can you all shut up already? I'm trying to sleep."

"But it's noon, sire."

"I don't care. Go back to bed. I order it."

There were grumbles but none of the Skeksis disobeyed. Despite complaints, the mess of tangled limbs and bare flesh huddled closer together. The biting chill of the open air was more repulsive than rubbing flesh with one another, no matter how revolting most of them viewed each other.

Winter was horrible and so much more bearable when they were all younger, with full feathers and less hatred for their fellow Skeksis. Even now, old and aching and bitter, the cold was enough to unite them again for a brief time.

The Emperor at the center. The smaller court members flanking him. The largest around the edge, crushing the warmth inward. All of them tangled together in a warm mass of beings that once enjoyed each others' intimate company but no longer. Now it was just a desperate tactic to survive a seasonal obstacle that once meant nothing to them.

Not a single one would ever admit to the mass cuddling taking place during the frigid winter nights. And days.


	50. Not My Fault

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> skekZer does something he really thinks he shouldn't be blamed for. Too bad he knows better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Blood warning in this, along with implied murder. I'm sorry, skekZer. I had to.
> 
> Also, hiiii! I'm alive! Just very busy, but I've finally carved out time to hopefully jumpstart my butt to writing again. Let's see how long this spurt lasts. This thing is now 50 chapters, wtf, how do I write so much about these old birds?! lol

skekZer quietly watched the blood drip. He had no words left. None could possibly explain or defend his actions.

It had been an accident. He didn't mean it, really. It wasn't his fault. He was stressed. Overwhelmed. He couldn't be blamed, surely.

The red was staining the stone floor, spreading to his feet. Beginning to climb up his robes. Why was it spreading so much? Like a living thing. Blood can't act like that. It had no will. No mind. It was blood. Liquid! MINDLESS!!

Yet there it was, climbing up his robes.

skekEkt was going to kill him. Strangle the Acupuncturist. Leave him for dead for such a crime. Nobody would blame him. skekEkt had brought harm for less. Surely a murder would be overlooked if it was the Ornamentalist doing it. Everyone loved him!

It made skekZer jealous. Nobody would overlook this. Nobody would turn the other cheek to such a gruesome scene. "Oh, it's just skekZer, don't bother with it." No, they'd be all over him. Clawing, biting, mauling. Like rats. Rats!

He hated rats. Disgusting things! Vermin! He was a Lord of the Crystal. He didn't deserve to die like that.

It was an accident. He'd take it back if he could. He lost his head for a moment, that's all. Surely the bodies could be discarded. Wiped away. Tell the Gelfling and Podling that the children went missing. It happened all the time! He couldn't keep track of them every second of the day, even if that's exactly what he'd been doing for the last four trine since taking these little ones under his tutelage.

It wasn't his fault...

Yet the trio of little bodies lay on his chamber floor, never to move again. Never to ask questions. Never to spread his knowledge to the world beyond. Their hearts and minds frozen, lost to Thra's will.

skekZer could not move. Claws dripping in red. Mind reeling, unable to recall how it happened. One question too far? Too much stress?

"It's not my fault. They did it to themselves," he squeaked.

But who would listen to a fool like him?


	51. Buried Treasure Made Difficult

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> skekMal accompanies skekSa in retrieving some treasure she buried. She didn't tell him it was flower seed season...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's basically snowing dandelion seeds over here. I got inspired.

"ACHOO!!"

"Excuse you," skekSa said, biting down a snicker.

The Hunter growled, swiping at his mask.

Soft white fluff was flying through the air all around them. skekSa recognized the chrysalion seeds anywhere. She had even brought the brim of her hat down to avoid the tiny puffballs getting caught too much in her feathers.

The Hunter growled, swiping at the seeds. The tiny fluffs weaved around his fingers, easily dodging his claws as the wind took them out to sea. It was a rather beautiful sight, from a distance. But here in the heart of such an event, it was rather miserable.

"Why did you stow your treasure here?!" skekMal demanded, sneezing. There was fluff in his mask, getting in his mouth.

"For this reason," skekSa replied, tugging the neck of her clothes up to save herself from her companion's fate. "Make sure not to swallow those. I hear they're poisonous."

"What?!"

She laughed as she sunk her shovel into the dirt, digging up her treasure. What a lovely day indeed. For her.


End file.
